Combining UPLC/Q-TOF-MS/MS With Biological Evaluation for NF-κB Inhibitors in Uyghur Medicine Althaea rosea Flowers

Abstract

The Althaea rosea (Linn.) flower is a common plant that is often used to control inflammation in Uyghur ethnic medicine. However, its active ingredients remain uncertain and difficult to identify, severely limiting its use as a valuable crop. This paper aims to establish a rapid assay strategy for the integration of ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS/MS) and a biologically active (NF-κB inhibitor) luciferase reporter detection system to explore various anti-inflammatory compounds of A. rosea (Linn.) flowers. Potential anti-inflammatory components were screened using the NF-κB activity assay system and simultaneously identified based on mass spectrometry data. Four structural types of NF-κB inhibitors (phenolic acid, hydroxycinnamic acid, flavonoid, and dihydroflavone) were identified. Further cytokine assays confirmed their potential anti-inflammatory effects as NF-κB inhibitors. Compared with traditional chromatographic separation, integrated UPLC/Q-TOF-MS/MS identification compounds, and biological activity verification are more convenient and more reliable. This strategy clearly demonstrates that fingerprinting based on MS data not only can identify unknown components but also is a powerful and useful tool for screening trace active ingredients directly from complex matrices. A. rosea (Linn.) exhibits great health and pharmaceutical value and may contribute to the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs.

A comprehensive study of celastrol metabolism in vivo and in vitro using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid triple quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

“…The development of various data acquisition technologies, including high-resolution MS and TOF analysis, has enabled excellent metabolite detection owing to higher resolution, accuracy, speed, and sensitivity [16][17]. TOF analysis provides a full scan mass spectra and a secondary mass spectral dataset for identifying metabolites by information-dependent capture, facilitating the identification of target-and non-target compounds [18][19][20][21]. These techniques can assist in tracing all probably generated metabolites of celastrol.…”

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Althaea rosea (L.) Cavan. (Malvaceae) and its phylogenetic analysis

“…Althaea rosea (L.) Cavan. (family Malvaceae), also known as hollyhock or marshmallow, is a perennial upright plant usually grown in rural and urban areas with beautiful flowers (Zhang et al 2015;Ma et al 2018). The plant is native to China and is now widely found in tropical zones and temperate regions around the world (Huang et al 2019).…”

“…The plant is native to China and is now widely found in tropical zones and temperate regions around the world (Huang et al 2019). The flowers, leaves, roots, and seeds are the medicinal parts, and have been used to treat several diseases as anti-inflammatory, expectorant, febrifuge, and demulcent agents in traditional Uyghur medicine for a long time (Kim et al 2017;Ma et al 2018). Previous studies mainly focused on describing its chemical compositions and their pharmacological activities (Papiez et al 2002;Liu et al 2009;Choi et al 2012;Liu et al 2014).…”