A novel approach based on metabolomics coupled with network pharmacology to explain the effect mechanisms of Danggui Buxue Tang in anaemia

Danggui Buxue Tang (DBT) is a famous Chinese medicinal decoction. Mechanism of DBT action is wide ranging and unclear. Exploring new ways of treatment with DBT is useful. Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were randomly divided into 3 groups including control (NC, Saline), the DBT (at a dose of 8.10 g·kg^-1), and blood deficiency (BD) (Cyclophosphamide (APH)-and Cyclophosphamide(CTX)-induced anaemia). A metabolomics approach using Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight/Mass Spectrometry (LC/Q-TOFMS) was developed to perform the plasma metabolic profiling analysis and differential metabolites were screened according to the multivariate statistical analysis comparing the NC and BD groups, and the hub metabolites were outliers with high scores of the centrality indices. Anaemia disease-related protein target and compound of DBT databases were constructed. The TCMSP, ChemMapper and STITCH databases were used to predict the protein targets of DBT. Using the Cytoscape 3.2.1 to establish a phytochemical component-target protein interaction network and establish a component, protein and hub metabolite protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and merging the three PPI networks basing on BisoGenet. The gene enrichment analysis was used to analyse the relationship between proteins based on the relevant genetic similarity by ClueGO. The results shown DBT effectively treated anaemia in vivo. 11 metabolic pathways are involved in the therapeutic effect of DBT in vivo; S-adenosyl-L-methionine, glycine, L-cysteine, arachidonic acid (AA) and phosphatidylcholine(PC) were screened as hub metabolites in APH-and CTX-induced anaemia. A total of 288 targets were identified as major candidates for anaemia progression. The gene-set enrichment analysis revealed that the targets are involved in iron ion binding, haemopoiesis, reactive oxygen species production, inflammation and apoptosis. The results also showed that these targets were associated with iron ion binding, haemopoiesis, ROS production, apoptosis, inflammation and related signalling pathways. DBT can promote iron ion binding and haemopoiesis activities, restrain inflammation, production of reactive oxygen, block apoptosis, and contribute significantly to the DBT treat anaemia.