title: A metabonomic analysis reveals novel regulatory mechanism of Huangqi injection on leucopenia mice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Huangqi injection (HQI), extracted from Astragali Radix, which has capability on treating the leucopenia. However, the potential metabolic mechanism is poorly understood.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of HQI on cyclophosphamide (Cy)-induced leucopenia in mice, the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomic profiling technique coupled with multivariate statistical analysis was applied.
  
  
  METHODS
  NMR analysis was used to identify the various compounds of HQI, and high-performance liquid chromatography was applied to determine the contents of major compounds. A experimental mice model of leucopenia induced by Cy and NMR-based metabolomic approach was used to evaluate the pharmacological effect of HQI and to investigate its probable acting mechanism on leucopenia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HQI increased body weight and elevated the white blood cell (WBC), monocytes (MO), neutrophils (NE), and lymphocyte (LY) levels of Cy-treated mice. In addition, the levels of most perturbed endogenous metabolites could be reversed after HQI treatment. Correlations between WBC, MO, NE, LY, and altered metabolite profiles in spleen were greater than that in serum, and the correlation in MO was more evident than those for WBC, NE, and LY.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HQI showed obvious efficacy on the mice model of leucopenia. And the drug action of HQI on leucopenia was probably related with regulating metabolic pathways of energy metabolism, amino acids metabolism, oxidative stress, and choline metabolism. However, various compounds were present in the HQI, and the bioactive compounds responsible for the drug actions should be further investigated.
authors.affiliation: a Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Shanxi University , Taiyuan , Shanxi , People's Republic of China .|b School of Pharmaceutical Science of Shanxi Medical University , Taiyuan , Shanxi , People's Republic of China , and.
authors.forename: Tingli
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: a Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Shanxi University , Taiyuan , Shanxi , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Zhenyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: a Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Shanxi University , Taiyuan , Shanxi , People's Republic of China .|c Shanxi Institute for Food and Drug Control , Taiyuan , Shanxi , People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Sijun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: a Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Shanxi University , Taiyuan , Shanxi , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Aiping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: a Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Shanxi University , Taiyuan , Shanxi , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D027885:Astragalus propinquus; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007970:Leukopenia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D055442:Metabolome / Q000187:drug effects*; D055432:Metabolomics; D051379:Mice
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C027492:Huang Qi
keywords: Huangqi injection; immune; leucopenia; metabolomics; nuclear magnetic resonance