Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma reduces oxidative stress caused by hyperuricemia via upregulation of catalase.
OBJECTIVE
Reports have suggested that the traditional Chinese medicine Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma attenuates hyperuricemia, but its mechanism is unclear. Our previous study demonstrated that uric acid could induce the generation of reactive oxygen species(ROS), which subsequently cause endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, we focused on the oxidative stress process. In this study, we would use LC-MS and bioinformatic analysis to investigate the underlying mechanism.


METHODS
We utilized LC-MS to reveal the differential protein expression in the kidneys of rats in the hyperuricemia group and the Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma treatment group and then subjected the differentially expressed proteins to bioinformatic analysis. We also determined the serum ROS level of the two groups. According the above results, we built our hypothesis and performed in vitro experiments to validate this hypothesis.


RESULTS
We found that catalase was upregulated in the group treated with Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma, and the level of reactive oxygen species was higher in the hyperuricemia group. Thus, we speculated that Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma could alleviate oxidative stress by upregulating catalase. In vitro experiments, we found that high concentrations of uric acid reduced catalase expression in endothelial cells, which was alleviated by Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma and resulted in a reduction of reactive oxygen species. Knockdown of catalase led to an increase in reactive oxygen species.


CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated that Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma could alleviate the oxidative stress caused by hyperuricemia by upregulating catalase expression. This finding could represent a new application for Smilacis Glabrae Rhizoma in the treatment of hyperuricemia.
Department of Nephrology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Chinese PLA Institute of Nephrology, State Key Laboratory of Kidney Diseases, National Clinical Research Center of Kidney Diseases; Beijing, P.R. China.
Quan
Q
Hong
Shandong
S
Yu
Yan
Y
Mei
Yang
Y
Lv
Dapeng
D
Chen
Yuanda
Y
Wang
Wenjia
W
Geng
Di
D
Wu
Guangyan
G
Cai
Xiangmei
X
Chen
D000818:Animals; D002374:Catalase / Q000378:metabolism*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D033461:Hyperuricemia / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism*; D007668:Kidney / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D027343:Rhizome / Q000737:chemistry*; D015854:Up-Regulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D014527:Uric Acid; D002374:Catalase