title: Dan-Qi prescription ameliorates insulin resistance through overall corrective regulation of glucose and fat metabolism.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Danshen and Sanqi Prescription (Dan-Qi) is commonly used to treat cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in China. Since Danshen and Sanqi are reported to ameliorate lipid metabolism disorders at treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Meanwhile, it is reported that co-administration of Danshen and Sanqi exhibited significant pharmacokinetic herb-herb interactions. We reasoned that Danshen and Sanqi combination could be potentially function synergistically in treating diet induced insulin resistance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using high calori food induced Drosophila and mice models, we assessed Danshen and Sanqi treatment for their anti-diabetic effects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The combination of Danshen and Sanqi (Dan-Qi) effectively improved fat and glucose metabolism of the high-sugar and high-fat diet fed fruit flies. More importantly, Dan-Qi significantly ameliorated hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia phenotype caused in high-fat diet induced obesity (DIO) mouse model. The Dan-Qi treated DIO mice showed lower fasting insulin, triglycerides, total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels in plasma, much better than Danshen or Sanqi treated alone. It was shown that Dan-Qi prescription reduced fat accumulation in the liver with Sanqi playing the major role. Interestingly, it was not Danshen or Sanqi alone, but the combination markedly increased glycogen deposition in mice liver. Quantitative RT-PCR showed Dan-Qi increased liver glycogen synthesis gene like Glut-1, GK, and Glut-4, reduced fat and cholesterol anabolism genes such as SREBP-1c, ACC, ATP-CL, ACS. Meanwhilpose tissues and muscle tissues, the glucose and fat metabolism genes are changed accordingly to pro-catabolism status. Notably, endogenous plasma metabolites of Dan-Qi treated mice displayed much better overral rectifying effects than the Danshen or Sanqi alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data demonstrated that Danshen and Sanqi combination exerted significant anti-diabetic efficacy, and Dan-Qi prescription could be potentially considered as a therapeutic application in diabetes.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Zhishen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Thanh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Loi Truong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Fengguo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Drug Discovery for Metabolic Disease, China Pharmaceutical University, 210009 Nanjing, China. Electronic address: xiaojunxu2000@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China. Electronic address: liping2004@126.com.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004330:Drosophila; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004435:Eating / Q000187:drug effects; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000187:drug effects*; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry; D027343:Rhizome / Q000737:chemistry; D027561:Salvia miltiorrhiza / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D010936:Plant Extracts; C587496:sanqi; D005947:Glucose
keywords: Ginsenoside Rb1 (PubChem CID: 9898279); Ginsenoside Rg1 (PubChem CID: 441923); Insulin resistant; Notoginsenoside R1 (PubChem CID: 441934); Obesity; Panax notoginseng; Salvia miltiorrhiza Bung; Salvianolic acid B (PubChem CID: 13991587); Tanshinone IIA (PubChem CID: 164676)