Qingfei Litan Decoction Against Acute Lung Injury/Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: The Potential Roles of Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Oxidative Effects

Abstract

Acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) is an acute respiratory failure syndrome characterized by progressive arterial hypoxemia and dyspnea. Qingfei Litan (QFLT) decoction, as a classic prescription for the treatment of acute respiratory infections, is effective for the treatment of ALI/ARDS. In this study, the compounds, hub targets, and major pathways of QFLT in ALI/ARDS treatment were analyzed using Ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) and systemic pharmacology strategies. UHPLC-MS identified 47 main components of QFLT. To explore its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative mechanisms, gene ontology (Go) analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment and network pharmacological analysis were conducted based on the main 47 components. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that TNF signaling pathway and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway may be the key pathways of ALI/ARDS. We explored the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative pharmacological effects of QFLT in treatment of ALI/ARDS in vivo and in vitro. QFLT suppressed the levels of proinflammatory cytokines and alleviated oxidative stress in LPS-challenged mice. In vitro, QFLT decreased the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β secreted by LPS-activated macrophages, increased GSH level and decreased the LPS-activated reactive oxygen species (ROS) in lung epithelial A549 cells. This study suggested that QFLT may have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects on ALI/ARDS, combining in vivo and in vitro experiments with systemic pharmacology, providing a potential therapeutic strategy option.

The potential mechanism of Choulingdan mixture in improving acute lung injury based on HPLC–Q‐TOF–MS, network pharmacology and in vivo experiments

“…Current research has shown that TCM has an evident impact on the treatment of ALI induced by infectious diseases. For example, Qingfei Litan decoction has anti‐inflammatory and antioxidative effects on ALI (Diao et al, 2022). Xuebijing injection can significantly inhibit inflammatory and oxidative stress in ALI rats, and the effect is mainly related to mediating the downregulation of the TLR4 and NF‐ κ B expression (He et al, 2018; Xu et al, 2019).…”

Fusu mixture alleviates inflammatory reactions in lipopolysaccharide-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome mice via regulation of surfactant-associated protein C, aquaporin 5, and Notch1

“…Natural herbal medicines, particularly traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), are irrefutably precious resources for the exploration of new drugs for treating various intractable diseases ( 13 , 14 ). Increasing evidences have shown that TCMs could be used to improve COVID-19 pneumonia, and could be also effective to treat ARDS induced by various viruses or bacteria ( 15 - 17 ).…”

Exploring the Mechanism of Zanthoxylum Bungeanum Maxim in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis Based on Network Pharmacology, Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

“…Network pharmacology is a combination of genomics, topology, systems biology, and other multidisciplinary and multiple techniques, which integrate the characteristics of integrity, dynamics and analysis in methodology, and is similar to the synergistic action of traditional Chinese medicine through principal, assistant, complement and guide [12,13]. Therefore, it has been widely used in the study of the pharmacological mechanism of Chinese traditional compound medicine [14][15][16]. Molecular docking technology, which uses computer-assisted drug design, is a well-established method to assist in small molecule drug development [17][18][19].…”