Efficacy of Compound Herbal Medicine Tong-Xie-Yao-Fang for Acute Radiation Enteritis and Its Potential Mechanisms: Evidence from Transcriptome Analysis

Abstract

Acute radiation enteritis (ARE) is a common complication with radiotherapy for pelvic and abdominal malignancy. This research is designed to investigate the efficacy of Tong-Xie-Yao-Fang (TXYF) on ARE and to explore the underlying mechanisms by microarray analysis. The ARE rat model was established by a single abdominal irradiation with a gamma-ray dose of 10 Gy. Next, the ARE rats were treated with distilled water, TXYF, and glutamine by gavage for 7 consecutive days according to the scheduled groups. For each group, the jejunal tissue was taken at 6 h after gastric lavage. The morphology of intestinal tissue was observed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain under a light microscope. The height of the villus and the thickness of the whole layer of the TXYF-treated groups were significantly ameliorative than that of the model control group. The transcriptome analysis was produced using the Agilent SurePrint G3 Rat GE V2.0 microarray. A total of 90 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 48 upregulated genes and 42 downregulated genes, were identified by microarray and bioinformatics analysis. Protein–protein interaction (PPI), Gene Ontology (GO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were conducted to explore the possible mechanisms of DEGs taking part in the TXYF-mediated therapeutic process for ARE. In conclusion, we reveal that TXYF has a protective effect on the intestinal tissue of rats with ARE and summarize several DEGs, suggesting the possible mechanisms of TXYF-mediated efficacy for ARE.

The protective effects of Xuebijing injection on intestinal injuries of mice exposed to irradiation

“…RIII prevention and treatment research is mainly focused on natural antioxidants (such as vitamins and amino acids), known body protectors, newly synthesized compounds, and biotechnological methods. [7][8][9] A large number of studies have shown that Chinese medicines or extracts may alleviate radiation damage, [10][11][12][13][14] and also have protective effects on radiation enteritis, 15,16 including menthol and ginseng, which are attracting increasing attention due to their low toxicity and are used for radiation protection and treatment. 17,18 Therefore, Chinese medicine compounds may be effective in RIII protection and therapy.…”