Integration of UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS, chemometrics and network pharmacology
to discovery potential quality markers in Sinomenii Caulis
Abstract
Rationale: There are significant differences in Sinomenii
Caulis (SC) obtained from different geographical regions and medicinal
plant parts. This study aims to explore potential quality markers that
are correlated with clinical efficacy in SC by a comprehensive strategy
that integrates chemical profiling, chemometrics, and network
pharmacology. Methods: First, an alkaloid database was created
through the utilization of the UNIFI system to qualitatively analyze of
alkaloids in SC. Then, differential compounds in SC collected from
various geographic regions were screened by applying multivariate data
analysis. Subsequently, the support vector machine (SVM) and random
forest (RF) algorithms are adopted to calculate the grouping accuracy of
different components. Finally, network pharmacology was conducted to
analyze the pharmacological properties and potential associations of
these target compounds. Results: A total of 81 alkaloids were
identified from SC samples, including 13 aporphine alkaloids, 18
protoberberine alkaloids, 32 morphine alkaloids, 10 benzylisoquinoline
alkaloids, and 8 other types of alkaloids. Notably, palmatine,
sinoracutine, and magnoflorine are active ingredients with the ability
to differentiate the different regions of SC samples. And thus should be
prioritized when selecting quality markers. Additionally, it was
observed that the RF algorithms demonstrated higher classification
accuracy than the SVM model. Conclusion: This comprehensive
strategy may prove to be a powerful technique for screening the quality
markers components, which could be used for the quality control of SC,
and can serve as reference for design of quality control of other herbs.