Quality evaluation of Pinelliae Rhizoma using network pharmacology and multi-component quantitative analysis

Background:Pinelliae Rhizoma(Banxia)is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine,and its quality issues are related to the safety and effectiveness of the medicine.Several pharmacological experiments have shown that Pinelliae Rhizoma has anti-inflammatory activity,but the specific chemical components remain unclear.Methods:In the present study,network pharmacology was used to analyze the potential active ingredients and molecular mechanisms of Pinelliae Rhizoma’s anti-inflammatory activity.A new approach to simultaneously determine eight components using high performance liquid chromatography-photo-diode array was developed to evaluate the quality of Pinelliae Rhizoma and different processed Pinelliae Rhizoma products.Results:Twelve active ingredients were identified from Pinelliae Rhizoma,andβ-sitosterol may have a greater effect than the other active ingredients.Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses revealed the main pathways associated with Pinelliae Rhizoma’s mechanism for treating inflammation.Additionally,theβ-sitosterol content in different processed Pinelliae Rhizoma products decreased significantly,and the level of five nucleosides in Pinelliae Rhizoma was significantly higher than that of the processed Pinelliae Rhizoma products.The 6-gingerol content was detected in eight Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum cum Zingibere et Alumine batches with different origins,and liquiritin and liquiritigenin levels were detected in eight batches of Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum with different origins.Conclusion:Pinelliae Rhizoma quality was affected by different regions and different processing methods,and this research provides a reference for Pinelliae Rhizoma quality evaluation.

Maternal sleep deprivation induces gut microbial dysbiosis and neuroinflammation in offspring rats

Maternal sleep deprivation(MSD)is a global public health problem that affects the physical and mental development of pregnant women and their newborns.The latest research suggests that sleep deprivation(SD)disrupts the gut microbiota,leading to neuroinflammation and psychological disturbances.However,it is unclear whether MSD affects the establishment of gut microbiota and neuroinflammation in the newborns.In the present study,MSD was performed on pregnant SpragueDawley rats in the third trimester of pregnancy(gestational days 15-21),after which intestinal contents and brain tissues were collected from offspring at different postnatal days(P1,P7,P14,and P56).Based on microbial profiling,microbial diversity and richness increased in pregnant rats subjected to MSD,as reflected by the significant increase in the phylum Firmicutes.In addition,microbial dysbiosis marked by abundant Firmicutes bacteria was observed in the MSD offspring.Furthermore,quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction(q RT-PCR)and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)showed that the expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin 1β(IL-1β)and tumor necrosis factorα(TNF-α)were significantly higher in the MSD offspring at adulthood(P56)than in the control group.Through Spearman correlation analysis,IL-1βand TNF-αwere also shown to be positively correlated with Ruminococcus_1 and Ruminococcaceae_UCG-005 at P56,which may determine the microbiota-host interactions in MSDrelated neuroinflammation.Collectively,these results indicate that MSD changes maternal gut microbiota and affects the establishment of neonatal gut microbiota,leading to neuroinflammation in MSD offspring.Therefore,understanding the role of gut microbiota during physiological development may provide potential interventions for cognitive dysfunction in MSD-impacted offspring.