Integrated plasma and urine metabolomics coupled with HPLC/QTOF-MS and chemometric analysis on potential biomarkers in liver injury and hepatoprotective effects of Er-Zhi-Wan

摘要: Metabolomics techniques are the comprehensive assessment of endogenous metabolites in a biological system and may provide additional insight into molecular mechanisms. Er-Zhi-Wan (EZW) is traditional Chinese medicine formula, which contains Fructus Ligustri Lucidi (FLL) Herba Ecliptae (HE). EZW widely used to prevent treat various liver injuries through nourishment liver. However, precise mechanism hepatoprotective effects has not been comprehensively explored. Here, an integrated metabolomics strategy was designed assess possible mechanisms against carbon tetrachloride-induced injury, commonly model both acute chronic intoxication. High-performance chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC/QTOF-MS) combined with chemometric approaches including principal component analysis (PCA) partial least squares-discriminant (PLS-DA) were discover differentiating data rat plasma urine. Results indicate six metabolites, tryptophan, sphinganine, tetrahydrocorticosterone, pipecolic acid, l-2-amino-3-oxobutanoic acid phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate, positive mode. Functional pathway revealed that alterations these associated tryptophan metabolism, sphingolipid steroid hormone biosynthesis, lysine degradation, glycine, serine threonine pentose phosphate pathway. Of note, potential pharmacological effect, might be regulating multiple perturbed pathways normal state. Our findings also showed robust promising for identifying more biomarkers helping clarify function medicine.