Fast Screening of Biomembrane-Permeable Compounds in Herbal Medicines Using Bubble-Generating Magnetic Liposomes Coupled with LC–MS

Abstract

A novel strategy based on the use of bionic membrane camouflaged magnetic particles and LC–MS was developed to quickly screen the biomembrane-permeable compounds in herbal medicines. The bionic membrane was constructed by bubble-generating magnetic liposomes loaded with NH4HCO3 (BMLs). The lipid bilayer structure of the liposomes enabled BMLs to capture biomembrane-permeable compounds from a herbal extract. The BMLs carrying the compounds were then separated from the extract by a magnetic field. Upon heat treatment, NH4HCO3 rapidly decomposed to form CO2 bubbles within the liposomal bilayer, and the captured compounds were released from BMLs and analyzed by LC–MS. Jinlingzi San (JLZS), which contains various natural ingredients, was chosen to assess the feasibility of the proposed method. As a result, nine potential permeable compounds captured by BMLs were identified for the first time. Moreover, an in vivo animal study found that most of the compounds screened out by the proposed method were absorbed into the blood. The study provides a powerful tool for rapid and simultaneous prediction of multiple biomembrane-permeable components.

Application progress of immobilized biomembrane in the discovery of active compounds of natural products

“…There are typically two methods for connecting the biomembrane with the carrier material. Biomembrane wraps nano‐ and micro‐materials such as MNPs (Gu et al, 2021) and silica microspheres (He et al, 2018) as shown in Figure 1(a). Figure 1(b) depicts another technique.…”

High-throughput screening for amyloid-β binding natural small-molecules based on the combinational use of biolayer interferometry and UHPLC−DAD-Q/TOF-MS/MS

“…Therefore, it is very important to develop an effective, time-saving, and reliable method for the screening of small-molecule inhibitors of A β from natural medicines. To date, several screening methods reported, including cell membrane chromatography (CMC) 25 , network pharmacology and molecular docking 26 , affinity ultrafiltration with drug targets of interest coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography−mass spectrometry (AUF−HPLC−MS/MS) 27 , bubble-generating magnetic liposomes coupled with liquid chromatography−mass spectrometry (LC−MS) 28 , etc. In general, most of them are developed based the application of advanced analytical instruments, such as HPLC, MS, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) 29 , 30 .…”