LI Li,CHENG Xuechun,ZHUANG Xiuping,et al.Predictive screening, activity evaluation and quantitative analysis of hepatoprotective constituents from Thesium chinense Turcz.[J].ZHONGGUO YAOFANG,2026,37(19):2522-2528.
LI Li,CHENG Xuechun,ZHUANG Xiuping,et al.Predictive screening, activity evaluation and quantitative analysis of hepatoprotective constituents from Thesium chinense Turcz.[J].ZHONGGUO YAOFANG,2026,37(19):2522-2528.DOI: 10.6039/j.issn.1001-0408.2026.19.07.
Predictive screening, activity evaluation and quantitative analysis of hepatoprotective constituents from Thesium chinense Turcz.
To provide an experimental basis for quality control, clinical application and development of hepatoprotective drugs derived from
Thesium chinense
Turcz.
METHODS
2
Network pharmacology was adopted to predict and screen potent
ial hepatoprotective constituents and their action targets of
T. chinense
Turcz. A liver-injured model of transgenic zebrafish
Tg
(
fabp10a
:
dsRed
) with fluorescent-labeled liver was induced by 4 mmol/L isoniazid. The relative liver fluorescence area and relative fluorescence intensity of zebrafish larvae, as well as the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), glutathione (GSH) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were taken as indexes to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of potential active constituents. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to determine the contents of hepatoprotective active constituents in 17 batches of
T. chinense
Turcz. medicinal materials from different producing areas.
RESULTS
2
Four potential hepatoprotective constituents including kaempferol-3-
O
-glucorhamnoside (KOG), kaempferol-3,7-di-
O
-glucoside (KDG), buddleoside (BUD) and apigenin-5-
O
-neohesperidoside (AON) were screened out via network pharmacology, and their core targets involved mitogen-activated protein kinase 1, nuclear factor-κB subunit 1, etc. Pharmacodynamic verification results showed that 25 μmol/L KOG, BUD, AON and 50 μmol/L KDG could significantly increase the relative liver fluorescence area and relative fluorescence intensity of liver-injured model larvae (
P
<0.05), reduce the levels of AST, ALT and IL-6 (
P
<0.05), and elevate the GSH level (
P
<0.05). Content determination results indicated that KOG could be detected in all 17 batches of
T. chinense
Turcz. medicinal materials, with contents ranging from 0.097 0 to 8.082 0 mg/g;KDG, AON and BUD were not detected in partial batches of samples, and their contents in detectable batches were 0.019 3-0.123 2 mg/g, 0.018 4-0.109 1 mg/g and 0.385 1-1.189 3 mg/g, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
2
KOG, KDG, AON and BUD in
T.chinense
Turcz. may be its potential hepatoprotective active constituents. Among them, KOG can be detected in
T.chinense
Turcz. medicinal materials from different producing areas with relatively high content, which can be used as the main marker constituent for evaluating the hepatoprotective effect of
Li G H , Fang K L , Yang K , et al . Thesium chinense Turcz.:an ethnomedical,phytochemical and pharmacological review [J ] . J Ethnopharmacol , 2021 , 273 : 113950 .
Li L , Ju J F , Zhuang X P , et al . Chemistry of Bairui gra- nules and its mechanisms in the protective effect against meth otrexate-induced liver injury [J ] . Phytomedicine , 2024 , 122 : 155158 .
Westerfield M . The zebrafish book:a guide for the laboratory use of zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) [M ] . 4th ed . Eugene : University of Oregon Press , 2000 : 25 - 30 .
Panzica-Kelly J M , Zhang C X , Danberry T L , et al . Morphological score assignment guidelines for the dechorionated zebrafish teratogenicity assay [J ] . Birth Defects Res B Dev Reprod Toxicol , 2010 , 89 ( 5 ): 382 - 395 .
Chen M , Liu G W , Fang Z Y , et al . Buddleoside alleviates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis by targeting the AMPK-TFEB signaling pathway [J ] . Autophagy , 2025 , 21 ( 6 ): 1316 - 1334 .
Hoofnagle J H , Björnsson E S . Drug-induced liver injury:types and phenotypes [J ] . N Engl J Med , 2019 , 381 ( 3 ): 264 - 273 .
Tavares B , Santos Lopes S . The importance of zebrafish in biomedical research [J ] . Acta Med Port , 2013 , 26 ( 5 ): 583 - 592 .
Zhang R L , He J , Wang X , et al . Report of the fifth zebra- fish research conference of China [J ] . Zebrafish , 2019 , 16 ( 1 ): 128 - 134 .
Wang C , Che K , Zhang G L , et al . Integrating metabolomics and machine learning to analyze chemical markers and ecological regulatory mechanisms of geographical differentiation in Thesium chinense Turcz .[J ] . Metabolites , 2025 , 15 ( 7 ): 423 .
Zhang F , Zhang G L , Wang C , et al . Geographical variation in metabolite profiles and bioactivity of Thesium chinense Turcz. revealed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS-based metabolomics [J ] . Front Plant Sci , 2024 , 15 : 1471729 .
Ding A P , Wang R F , Liu J , et al . Exploring information exchange between Thesium chinense and its host Prunella vulgaris through joint transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis [J ] . Plants (Basel) , 2024 , 13 ( 6 ): 804 .
Lu Y H , Huang J H , Li Y C , et al . Variation in nutritional compositions,antioxidant activity and microstructure of Lycopus lucidus Turcz. root at different harvest times [J ] . Food Chem , 2015 , 183 : 91 - 100 .