title: The pharmacokinetic screening of multiple components of the Nao Mai Tong formula in rat plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry combined with pattern recognition method and its application to comparative pharmacokinetics.
abstract: The Nao Mai Tong formula (NMT) is composed of Rhubarb, Ginseng, Ligusticum wallichii and Pueraria in a ratio of 3:3:2:2 (w/w) and is a well-known traditional Chinese prescription that has been clinically employed for treating ischemia cerebrovascular disease. The goal of this study was to investigate the pharmacokinetics of multiple components (chryohol-8-O-β-D-glucoyroide, physcion-8-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, aloe-emodin, rhein, emodin, chrysophanol, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, ginsenoside Rb3,ginsenoside Rc, senkyunolide I, ligustilide puerarin, daidzein, 3'-methoxy puerarin) after the oral administration of the NMT formula in rats. A rapid and sensitive UHPLC-Quadrupole-Orbitrap-MS with a sequential positive and negative ionization mode was developed to determine the 15 absorbed ingredients. After extraction from blood, the analytes and internal standards were subjected to ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with Agela Venusil MPC18(2.1mm×100mm, 3μm, Agela, USA). The mobile phase consisted of methanol and ammonium acetate (3mmolL-1) under gradient elution conditions. This validated method was successfully applied to a comparative pharmacokinetic study of fifteen components in rat plasma after oral administration of the NMT formula or single herb extracts to normal and stroke-afflicted rats. A principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized to evaluate the differences in the pharmacokinetic behavior (time-course) of the absorbed components of NMT, and the absorbed components were assigned to 3 separate clusters. A comparison of the body dynamics of each group indicated that cluster B (ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, ginsenoside Rb3,ginsenoside Rc) might be the most important constituents controlling the pharmacological effects of NMT. The comparative pharmacokinetic study showed that the different groups had different pharmacokinetic characteristics. The pharmacokinetics-based UHPLC Quadrupole-Orbitrap-MS using a full-scan mode combined with a pattern recognition approach can provide a reliable and suitable means of screening and identifying potentially bioactive components that contribute to the pharmacological effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Chunwei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Yueying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Guoxue
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; Key Laboratory of Digital Quality Evaluation of Chinese Materia Medica of State Administration of TCM, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; Engineering & Technology Research Center for Chinese Materia Medica Quality of the Universities of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou 510006, PR China. Electronic address: swliang371@163.com.
authors.forename: Shengwang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; Key Laboratory of Digital Quality Evaluation of Chinese Materia Medica of State Administration of TCM, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; Engineering & Technology Research Center for Chinese Materia Medica Quality of the Universities of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou 510006, PR China. Electronic address: shmwang@sina.com.
authors.forename: Shumei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D004339:Drug Compounding; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D030004:Ligusticum / Q000378:metabolism; D005894:Panax / Q000378:metabolism; D029908:Pueraria / Q000378:metabolism; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012250:Rheum / Q000378:metabolism; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal
keywords: Comparative pharmacokinetics; Multi-components; Nao Mai Tong formula; Pharmacokinetics screening; Principal component analysis; Quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry