Mechanistic Investigation of Xuebijing for Treatment of Paraquat-Induced Pulmonary Fibrosis by Metabolomics and Network Pharmacology

Abstract

After paraquat (PQ) poisoning, it is difficult to accurately diagnose patients' condition by only measuring their blood PQ concentration. Therefore, it is important to establish an accurate method to assist in the diagnosis of PQ poisoning, especially in the early stages. In this study, a gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC−MS) metabonomics strategy was established to obtain metabolite information. A random forest algorithm was used to search for potential biomarkers of PQ poisoning, and data mining and network pharmacological analysis were used to evaluate the active components, drug−disease targets, and key pathways of Xuebijing (XBJ) injection in the treatment of PQ-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Targets from the network pharmacology analysis and metabolites from plasma metabolomics were jointly analyzed to select crucial metabolic pathways. Finally, molecular docking technology and in vitro experiments were used to verify the pathway targets to further reveal the potential mechanisms underlying the antipulmonary fibrosis effect of XBJ. Metabonomics studies showed that L-valine, glycine, citric acid, D-mannose, D-galactose, maltose, L-tryptophan, and arachidonic acid contributed more to the differentiation of different groups than other metabolites. Compared with the control group, the PQ poisoning group had higher levels of L-valine, glycine, citric acid, L-tryptophan, and arachidonic acid, and lower levels of D-mannose, D-galactose, and maltose. After treatment with XBJ injection, the relative levels of these metabolites were reversed. The network pharmacological analysis screened a total of 180 targets, mainly involving multiple signaling pathways and metabolic pathways, which jointly played an antipulmonary fibrosis effect. Based on the combined analysis of 180 targets and 8 different metabolites, arachidonic acid metabolism was selected as the key metabolic pathway. Molecular docking analysis showed that the XBJ compound had strong binding activity with the target protein. Western blot results showed that XBJ injection could reduce the inflammatory response by downregulating the expressions of p-p65, p-IKBα, and p-IKKβ, thus inhibiting the development of PQ-induced pulmonary fibrosis. In summary, the combined results from metabolomics and network pharmacology studies showed that Xuebijing has the characteristics of multitarget, multichannel, and multicomponent action in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis caused by PQ.

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“…The metabolites were identified using the automated mass spectral deconvolution and identification system (USA) and the NIST 17 database with a matching score of at least 80, thereby showing that the identified metabolites were credible (Kai et al, 2017; Yan et al, 2020). The results were double‐checked using the Human Metabolome Database and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) (http://www.genome.jp/kegg/) (Wang et al, 2021).…”

“Three medicines and three formulas” in COVID-19: from bench to bedside

“…XBJ ameliorates pulmonary endothelial injury, systemic inflammation, and coagulation dysfunction in early sepsis [109] . The results from metabolomics and network pharmacology studies have shown that XBJ has the characteristics of multi-target, multi-channel, and multi-component action in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis caused by paraquat (PQ) [110] . XBJ efficiently alleviates PQ-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice through the inhibition of TG2 expression and the Wnt-1/β-catenin signaling pathway [104] .…”