Screening for biomarkers of liver injury induced by Polygonum multiflorum: a targeted metabolomic study

Abstract

Heshouwu (HSW), the dry roots of Polygonum multiflorum, a classical traditional Chinese medicine is used as a tonic for a wide range of conditions, particularly those associated with aging. However, it tends to be taken overdose or long term in these years, which has resulted in liver damage reported in many countries. In this study, the indicative roles of nine bile acids (BAs) were evaluated to offer potential biomarkers for HSW induced liver injury. Nine BAs including cholic acid (CA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), taurocholic acid (TCA), glycocholic acid (GCA), glycochenodeoxycholic acid (GCDCA), deoxycholic acid (DCA), glycodeoxycholic acid (GDCA), ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), and hyodeoxycholic acid (HDCA) in rat bile and serum were detected by a developed LC-MS method after 42 days treatment. Partial least square-discriminate analysis (PLS-DA) was applied to evaluate the indicative roles of the nine BAs, and metabolism of the nine BAs was summarized. Significant change was observed for the concentrations of nine BAs in treatment groups compared with normal control; In the PLS-DA plots of nine BAs in bile, normal control and raw HSW groups were separately clustered and could be clearly distinguished, GDCA was selected as the distinguished components for raw HSW overdose treatment group. In the PLS-DA plots of nine BAs in serum, the normal control and raw HSW overdose treatment group were separately clustered and could be clearly distinguished, and HDCA was selected as the distinguished components for raw HSW overdose treatment group. The results indicated the perturbation of nine BAs was associated with HSW induced liver injury; GDCA in bile, as well as HDCA in serum could be selected as potential biomarkers for HSW induced liver injury; it also laid the foundation for the further search on the mechanisms of liver injury induced by HSW.

Cis-stilbene glucoside in Polygonum multiflorum induces immunological idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity in LPS-treated rats by suppressing PPAR-γ

“…PM, the root of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb, has been used for several decades as an herbal treatment in East Asia and some parts of North America. PM extracts have been shown to exert different pharmacological effects and have been used to treat a wide variety of diseases, such as constipation, early graying of the hair and hyperlipemia [1,2] . Similarly to other traditional Chinese medicines, PM was initially considered to be non-toxic, but reports of hepatotoxicity have recently increased [3] .…”

Insights into the molecular mechanisms of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb-induced liver injury: a computational systems toxicology approach

“…Coincidentally, Wang et al reported that the perturbation of nine bile acids (BAs) were associated with PmT-induced liver injury in 2015. However, the mechanism was not clear [57] . This result is consistent with our findings.…”

Investigation of Liver Injury of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. in Rats by Metabolomics and Traditional Approaches

“…Some metabolomics studies have been carried out to investigate the HSW toxicity. A targeting quantitative metabolomics reported the effect of PM on liver damage concentrating on nine kinds of bile acid changes (Dong et al, 2015 ). A study investigated the effect of different extract of PM on idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (Li et al, 2016 ), and another urine metabolomics study evaluated the liver toxicity of PM extract by 75% ethanol–water (Zhang et al, 2016a ).…”