Plasma amino acid profiling of cancer patients with abnormal savda based on high-performance liquid chromatography.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate metabolic signatures in plasma of cancer patients with abnormal Savda using plasma-free amino acid profiles, and to evaluate the diagnostic potential of these profiles for the detection and explanation of the mechanisms of different symptoms in traditional Uyghur medicine. METHODS: Plasma samples from cancer patients with abnormal Savda (n = 85) or non-abnormal Savda (n = 105) and a healthy control group (n = 65) were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Orthogonal projection to latent structures with discriminant analysis was used for the classification and prediction of abnormal Savda, and spectral profiles were subjected to Student's t-tests to assess statistical significance. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy group, the levels of aspartic acid, glutamate, glycine, histidine, arginine, threonine, alanine, proline, methionine, isoleucine, leucine and phenylalanine decreased significantly in plasma of cancer patients with abnormal Savda (all P < 0.05). Serine, cystine, tyrosine, valine and lysine levels showed no significant differences (all P > 0.05). Compared with non-abnormal Savda syndrome patients, abnormal Savda syndrome patients showed high concentrations of glutamate, serine, valine, isoleucine, leucine and phenylalanine (all P < 0.05). The remaining plasma amino acids showed no significant differences (all P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Plasma-free amino acid profiling has the potential to assist in understanding and determining abnormal Savda. A HPLC-based metabonomic platform could be a powerful tool for the classification of symptoms in traditional medicine.

Behavioral, neurochemical and neuroendocrine effects of abnormal savda munziq in the chronic stress mice.

Oral administration of Abnormal Savda Munsiq (ASMq), a herbal preparation used in Traditional Uighur Medicine, was found to exert a memory-enhancing effect in the chronic stressed mice, induced by electric foot-shock. The memory improvement of the stressed mice was shown by an increase of the latency time in the step-through test and the decrease of the latency time in the Y-maze test. Treatment with ASMq was found to significantly decrease the serum levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), corticosterone (CORT) and ß-endorphin (ß-EP) as well as the brain and serum level of norepinephrine (NE). Furthermore, ASMq was able to significantly reverse the chronic stress by decreasing the brain and serum levels of the monoamine neurotransmitters dopamine (DA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPAC). The results obtained from this study suggested that the memory-enhancing effect of ASMq was mediated through regulations of neurochemical and neuroendocrine systems.

Plasma metabonomic analysis with ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance revealing the relationship of different tumors and the disease homology theory of traditional Uyghur medicine.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the plasma samples obtained from tumor patients using (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and find the biochemical foundation of abnormal Savda described in traditional Uyghur medicine. METHODS: A total of 170 tumor patients with abnormal Savda syndrome who were confirmed clinically were enrolled in this study, and 50 healthy volunteers were set up as controls. The plasma (1)H NMR spectra were analyzed using the orthogonal projection to latent structure with discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) method with unit variance scaling. The discriminative significance of the metabolites was determined using the Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy controls, the tumor patients with abnormal Savda syndrome had uniformly correlative low levels of leucine, isoleucine, valine, histidine, tyrosine, alanine, glutamine, creatine, inositol, α-glucose, and ß-glucose (P<0.05), but had significantly high levels of formate, malonic acid, acetone, acetate, acetoacetate, pyruvate, ß-hydroxy butyrate, carnitine and lipidtemns such as very low density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein and unsaturated lipids (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Tumor patients with abnormal Savda syndrome had similar metabolic changes and characteristics, which indicated a similar pathogenetic process and provides some biochemical basis for traditional Uyghur medicine theory.

Immunomodulatory effects of Abnormal Savda Munsiq, a traditional Uighur medicine, on the combined stress mice.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the immunomodulatory effects of ASMq, a herbal preparation used in Traditional Uighur Medicine, on the combined stress mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The combined stress was induced on mice by application of the electric-foot shock in a cold-dry environment and three different doses of ASMq were orally administered to the animals for 14 days. The effect of ASMq on the immune apparatus weight index, lymphocytes proliferation, serum levels of the cytokines, immunoglobulins, hemolysin and NK cells as well as the phagocytic activity of the macrophages were evaluated. RESULTS: Oral administration of ASMq was found to increase the thymus and spleen indices, lymphocytes proliferation induced by Con A and LPS, the percentage of CD4(+) in thymus, spleen and peripheral blood and restore the CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio. The serum concentrations of INF-beta, IL-2, IL-6, IgG, NK cells and hemolysin were also increased. The macrophage phagocytic activity was also enhanced.