Comparison of Serum Metabolite Changes of Radiated Mice Administered with Panax quinquefolium from Different Cultivation Regions Using UPLC-Q/TOF-MS Based Metabolomic Approach

Abstract

Chemometric analysis of bioactive compounds revealed that American ginsengs (AGs) from different cultivation regions of China had a difference in quality, which indicates their possible pharmacological difference. A UPLC-Q/TOF-MS-based untargeted metabolomic approach was used to uncover serum metabolite changes in radiated mice pre-administered with AG root decoctions from seven cultivation regions and to further assess their quality difference. OPLS-DA revealed that 51 metabolites (ESI−) and 110 (ESI+) were differentially expressed in sera between the control and the radiated model mice. Heatmap analysis further revealed that AG could not reverse most of these radiation-altered metabolites, which indicates dietary supplement of AG before cobalt radiation had the weak potential to mediate serum metabolites that were altered by the sub-lethal high dose radiation. In addition, 83 (ESI−) and 244 (ESI+) AG altered metabolites were detected in radiated mice under radiation exposure. Both OPLS-DA on serum metabolomes and heatmap analysis on discriminant metabolites showed that AGs from different cultivation regions differentially influenced metabolic alterations in radiated mice, which indicates AGs from different cultivation regions showed the pharmacological difference in modulation of metabolite changes. AGs from Shandong, Shanxi, and Beijing provinces had more similar pharmacological effects than AGs from USA, Canada, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Finally, 28 important potential biomarkers were annotated and assigned onto three metabolic pathways including lipid, amino acid, and energy metabolisms.

Advances and challenges in ginseng research from 2011 to 2020: the phytochemistry, quality control, metabolism, and biosynthesis

“…Metabolomics, by quantifying the small-molecule endogenous metabolites in organisms, can reveal the disturbed metabolites and the metabolic pathways in response to the physiological and pathological changes, which can also serve as a tool enabling the holistic efficacy evaluation of drugs. Seven studies have utilized metabolomics to investigate the effects of different cultivation regions of P. quinquefolius on radiated mice, 386 the effects of Re in Alzheimer's disease (AD) mice, 387 the serum and liver metabolome changes for red ginseng-fed rats, 388 the antagonistic effects of P. ginseng in rats, 389 the improving effects of P. ginseng glycoproteins on the sleep quality in mice, 390 and the quality markers of P. quinquefolius. 391 Metabolomics can be used to evaluate the pharmacological differences in P. quinquefolius produced in different areas in China.…”

Chromatography hyphenated to high resolution mass spectrometry in untargeted metabolomics for investigation of food (bio)markers

“…Whether they are free or commercial tools, the processing is mainly the same, although it may differ in how the steps are carried out, some of them working with in-house made algorithms. In the literature reviewed, the most employed tools were open-source software as XCMS (R package or Online) [17,18,75,76], MZmine [16,77] and MetAlign [78]; and commercial software as Mass Profiler Pro (Agilent Technologies Inc.) [79,80] , Progenesis QI (Non Linear Dynamics, Waters) [15,25,72], MarkerLynx (Waters) [81,82], SIEVE (Thermo Scientific) [37] and Compound Discoverer (Thermo Scientific) [83]. Some of them, as the open source MS-DIAL [84] or Compound Discoverer (Thermo Scientific) among others commercial tools, not only perform the abovementioned processes, but also the extraction and deconvolution of DDA and DIA spectral data and annotation by comparison of the deconvoluted MS/MS spectra with in house and/or public data bases, which is especially important for conventional DIA spectral data interpretation [49,85,86].…”

American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium L.) as a Source of Bioactive Phytochemicals with Pro-Health Properties

“…The greatest area of AG cultivation is located in Wisconsin [19]. Since 1980s this species of ginseng is also cultivated in China [20].…”