Rat Serum Metabolomics Reveals a Metabolic Reprogramming Mechanism of Sodium Houttuyfonate in Preventing Diseases

[摘要] ObjectiveTo explore the metabolic regulatory mechanisms of sodium houttuyfonate (SH), a herbal-originated anti-inflammatory drug that has been used clinically in China for many years, in preventing diseases.MethodsRats received SH intragastrically at 24 mg/kg body weight once a day for 4 consecutive weeks, based on the equivalent dose of SH in rat vs. human. The abdominal aorta blood of the rats was collected to separate serum for metabolomic analyses by ultraperformance liquid chromatography combined with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS).ResultsCompared to the blank control, SH treatment induced 337 differential metabolites (DMs) with a fold change (FC) ≥ 2.0 or ≤0.50. Among them, 191 DMs can be annotated in the Human Metabolome Database (HMDB), and 98 DMs can be enriched in Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, including 11 hormones and hormone-related compounds, 18 organic acids and their derivatives, 8 nucleotides and their metabolites, 6 amino acid-related metabolites, etc. These DMs were enriched in 143 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, with the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and steroid hormone biosynthesis significantly altered. Finally, progesterone (MW0062186) and monoacylglycerols (MEDL02326) were the top up-regulated (5.47E+2) and the most down-regulated (1.36E-3) metabolites in the annotated DMs, respectively.ConclusionOur findings suggest a metabolic reprogramming mechanism of SH in preventing diseases, and this mechanism may guide the possible use of SH in the future.

[发布日期] 2026-07-01

[关键词] sodium houttuyfonate;metabolomics;progesterone;steroid hormone biosynthesis;metabolic reprogramming