Xuebijing (XBJ) injection is an ethnomedicinal formula that has been widely used in the therapy of sepsis in China. However, the underlying theraputic mechanisms remain uninvestigated. In this research, a metabolomic method based on UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS was applied to make a holistic evaluation of XBJ on septic rats which were induced by the classical cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) operation. The plasma metabolic changes were profiled and evaluated by multivariate analytical (MVA) methods. In the results, a total of 41 differential metabolites were identified between CLP-operated group and sham-operated group, which were mainly involved in amino acid metabolism and lipid metabolism. After pathway analysis, it was finally discovered that the majority of the influenced metabolic pathways caused by sepsis mainly involved in energy metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation metabolism. When intervened by XBJ injection, 32 of the 41 disordered metabolites had been adjusted in reverse, which suggested that XBJ could mediate the abnormal metabolic pathways synergistically. In conclusion, the present study systematically investigated the efficacy and its underlying therapeutic mechanisms of XBJ on sepsis, while offering a new insight for the subsequent relevant exploration of other Chinese medicine at the same time.
Sun Zhi,Zuo Lihua,Sun Tongwen,Tang Jinfa,Ding Daling,Zhou Lin,Kang Jian,Zhang Xiaojian
To clarify and quantify the chemical profiling of XueBiJing injection (XBJ) rapidly, a feasible and accurate strategy was developed by applying ultra high performance liquid chromatography-Q Exactive hybrid quadrupole-orbitrap high resolution accurate mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS). A total of 162 components were characterized, including 19 phenanthrenequinones, 33 lactones, 28 flavonoids and 12 phenolic acids and 51 other compounds. Among them, 38 major compounds were unambiguously quantified by comparing with reference standards. Meanwhile, 38 representative compounds were simultaneously detected in XBJ samples by Q-Orbitrap HRMS. Satisfactory linearity and correlation coefficient were achieved with wide linear range. The precisions, repeatability, stability and recovery were meeting requirements. The validated method was successfully applied for simultaneous determination of 38 bioactive compounds in 10 batches XBJ samples. In addition, the similarity evaluation of fingerprintings was applied to assess the quality of XBJ. And the results were evaluated by multiple statistical strategies and five compounds might be the most important chemical markers for chemical quality control of XBJ. Finally, a rapid and simple UPLC-MS/MS method was developed for determination of five markers in XBJ sample. This research established a high sensitive and efficient strategy for integrating quality control, including identification and quantification of XBJ.