Integrated Metabolomics and Network Pharmacology Study on Immunoregulation Mechanisms of Panax ginseng through Macrophages

Panax ginseng (PG) is a widely used functional food and herbal with immunoregulation activity. Currently, immunoregulation studies of PG mainly focused on the specific actions of individual constituents. However, the integral immunoregulation mechanisms of PG need further research. In this study, an integrated metabolomics and network pharmacology approach were used to investigate it. High-content screening was used to evaluate macrophage phagocytosis activity of PG. Untargeted metabolomics profiling of murine macrophage cells with UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS and a multivariate data method were performed to discover the potential biomarkers and metabolic pathways. Then, a macrophage phenotype related “ingredients-targets-metabolites” network of PG was constructed using network pharmacology for further research. As a result, PG can significantly enhance macrophage phagocytosis of GFP-E. coli. A total of twenty potential biomarkers and ten main pathways for which levels changed markedly upon treatment were identified, including glycerophospholipid metabolism, glutathione metabolism, choline metabolism, and taurine metabolism. Twenty compounds of PG associated with metabolomic changes were selected by the network pharmacology analysis, including ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rg1, frutinone A, and kaempferol. The network pharmacology results also showed that PG can polarize macrophages to both M1 and M2 phenotype but may be prone to M2 phenotype. In conclusion, our results indicated that PG may be prone to polarize macrophages to M2 phenotype by mainly regulating the glutathione and choline metabolism, which was related to twenty compounds of PG.