High-throughput untargeted metabolomics and chemometrics reveals pharmacological action and molecular mechanism of chuanxiong by ultra performance liquid chromatography combined with quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry

Metabolomics methods can be used to explore the effect mechanisms underlying treatments with traditional medicine. Lung cancer (LC) causes the highest morbidity and mortality among tumors disease, and has become a serious public health problem. Chuanxiong (CX) is a dried rhizome of Ligusticum Chuanxiong Hort., often used in traditional Chinese medicine and has been widely used in the treatment for tumors. However, the pharmacological effect of CX on the metabolism process of LC mice is still unclear. This study used high-throughput untargeted metabolomics aims to discover biomarkers and metabolic pathways of LC as a potential target to provide insight into the pharmacological action and effective mechanism of CX against LC. The precise structural identification of the LC biomarker has been established using ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) combined with quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (Q-TOF-MS) technology. UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and chemometrics methods were used to analyze the blood metabolism of LC model mice, and revealed the intervention effect of CX on LC model mice and potential therapeutic targets. The results showed that the metabolic profile clustering among the groups was obvious, and 31 potential biomarkers were finally locked, involving 7 related metabolic pathways. After treatment with CX, we found that 22 kinds of biomarkers were recalled to the main metabolic pathway which are associated with lipid metabolism. This study provides an effective biomarker reference for early clinical diagnosis of LC, and also provides a foundation for the expansion of new drugs for CX treatment of LC. Metabolomics methods can be used to explore the effect mechanisms underlying treatments with traditional medicine.