Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

1H NMR-based metabolomic analysis of triptolide-induced toxicity in liver-specific cytochrome P450 reductase knockout mice

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Metabolomics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Triptolide (TL) is an active component of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F which is used to treat autoimmune and inflammatory disease. However, a high incidence of adverse effects is often observed in clinic. Previously we have demonstrated that cytochrome P450s (CYPs) are involved in the metabolism of TL and low activity of hepatic P450 reductase aggravates TL-induced toxicity. However, the underlying mechanisms of TL-induced toxicity mediated by hepatic CYPs have not been well delineated. Here, an integrated 1H NMR-based metabolomic analysis was performed to evaluate the global biochemical alteration in the liver-specific cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) knockout (KO) mice and wild-type (WT) counterparts with a same dose of TL (0.5 mg/kg) administration. Dramatically different metabolic profiles indicated more severe hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity induced by TL in KO mice than in WT mice, which were confirmed by serum biochemistry and histopathological examination. Furthermore, the results from both multivariate statistical analysis and system statistical metabolic correlation analysis indicated that the significantly changed endogenous metabolites were primarily involved in oxidative stress, energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, gut microflora metabolism, and choline metabolism. Our results reveal the molecular mechanisms of TL-induced toxicity in the condition of hepatic CYP inactivation. As CYP inactivation and/or inhibition are usually caused by genetic polymorphism and/or drug–drug interactions, personalized prescription according to enzyme activity of CYPs and metabolic profiling could be used to maximize therapeutic efficacy and avoid or reduce TL-induced toxicity clinically.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Azmi, J., Griffin, J. L., Shore, R. F., Holmes, E., & Nicholson, J. K. (2005). Chemometric analysis of biofluids following toxicant induced hepatotoxicity: A metabonomic approach to distinguish the effects of 1-naphthylisothiocyanate from its products. Xenobiotica, 35(8), 839–852.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bairaktari, E., Seferiadis, K., Liamis, G., Psihogios, N., Tsolas, O., & Elisaf, M. (2002). Rhabdomyolysis-related renal tubular damage studied by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of urine. Clinical Chemistry, 48(7), 1106–1109.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beckonert, O., Keun, H. C., Ebbels, T. M., Bundy, J., Holmes, E., Lindon, J. C., et al. (2007). Metabolic profiling, metabolomic and metabonomic procedures for NMR spectroscopy of urine, plasma, serum and tissue extracts. Nature Protocols, 2(11), 2692–2703.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boudonck, K. J., Rose, D. J., Karoly, E. D., Lee, D. P., Lawton, K. A., & Lapinskas, P. J. (2009). Metabolomics for early detection of drug-induced kidney injury: Review of the current status. Bioanalysis, 1(9), 1645–1663.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carrola, J., Rocha, C. M., Barros, A. S., Gil, A. M., Goodfellow, B. J., Carreira, I. M., et al. (2011). Metabolic signatures of lung cancer in biofluids: NMR-based metabonomics of urine. Journal of Proteome Research, 10(1), 221–230.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, M., Ni, Y., Duan, H., Qiu, Y., Guo, C., Jiao, Y., et al. (2008). Mass spectrometry-based metabolic profiling of rat urine associated with general toxicity induced by the multiglycoside of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. f. Chemical Research in Toxicology, 21(2), 288–294.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, X. Z., Shayakul, C., Berger, U. V., Tian, W., & Hediger, M. A. (1998). Characterization of a rat Na+-dicarboxylate cotransporter. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 273(33), 20972–20981.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cloarec, O., Dumas, M. E., Trygg, J., Craig, A., Barton, R. H., Lindon, J. C., et al. (2005). Evaluation of the orthogonal projection on latent structure model limitations caused by chemical shift variability and improved visualization of biomarker changes in 1H NMR spectroscopic metabonomic studies. Analytical Chemistry, 77(2), 517–526.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Delaney, J., Neville, W. A., Swain, A., Miles, A., Leonard, M. S., & Waterfield, C. J. (2004). Phenylacetylglycine, a putative biomarker of phospholipidosis: Its origins and relevance to phospholipid accumulation using amiodarone treated rats as a model. Biomarkers, 9(3), 271–290.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ding, L., Hao, F., Shi, Z., Wang, Y., Zhang, H., Tang, H., et al. (2009). Systems biological responses to chronic perfluorododecanoic acid exposure by integrated metabonomic and transcriptomic studies. Journal of Proteome Research, 8(6), 2882–2891.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fan, T. W. M., & Lane, A. N. (2008). Structure-based profiling of metabolites and isotopomers by NMR. Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, 52(2–3), 69–117.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, M. A., Vaidya, V. S., & Bonventre, J. V. (2008). Biomarkers of nephrotoxic acute kidney injury. Toxicology, 245(3), 182–193.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gall, W. E., Beebe, K., Lawton, K. A., Adam, K. P., Mitchell, M. W., Nakhle, P. J., et al. (2010). Alpha-hydroxybutyrate is an early biomarker of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance in a nondiabetic population. PLoS One, 5(5), e10883.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, J. L., Mann, C. J., Scott, J., Shoulders, C. C., & Nicholson, J. K. (2001). Choline containing metabolites during cell transfection: An insight into magnetic resonance spectroscopy detectable changes. FEBS Letters, 509(2), 263–266.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gu, J., Weng, Y., Zhang, Q. Y., Cui, H., Behr, M., Wu, L., et al. (2003). Liver-specific deletion of the NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase gene: Impact on plasma cholesterol homeostasis and the function and regulation of microsomal cytochrome P450 and heme oxygenase. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 278(28), 25895–25901.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Harper, A. E. (1989). Thoughts on the role of branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase complex in nitrogen metabolism. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 573, 267–273.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, C. J., Otto, D. M., Carrie, D., Magnuson, M. A., McLaren, A. W., Rosewell, I., et al. (2003). Inactivation of the hepatic cytochrome P450 system by conditional deletion of hepatic cytochrome P450 reductase. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 278(15), 13480–13486.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hering-Smith, K. S., Gambala, C. T., & Hamm, L. L. (2000). Citrate and succinate transport in proximal tubule cells. American Journal of Physiology Renal Physiology, 278(3), F492–F498.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • James, T. J., Hughes, M. A., Cherry, G. W., & Taylor, R. P. (2003). Evidence of oxidative stress in chronic venous ulcers. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 11(3), 172–176.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kand’ar, R., & Zakova, P. (2008). Allantoin as a marker of oxidative stress in human erythrocytes. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, 46(9), 1270–1274.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kay, R. E., & Entenman, C. (1961). Stimulation of taurocholic acid synthesis and biliary excretion of lipids. American Journal of Physiology, 200, 855–859.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kupchan, S. M., Court, W. A., Dailey, R. G., Jr., Gilmore, C. J., & Bryan, R. F. (1972). Triptolide and tripdiolide, novel antileukemic diterpenoid triepoxides from Tripterygium wilfordii. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 94(20), 7194–7195.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kutlu, S., Colakoglu, N., Halifeoglu, I., Sandal, S., Seyran, A. D., Aydin, M., et al. (2007). Comparative evaluation of hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic effects of aroclors 1221 and 1254 in female rats. Cell Biochemistry and Function, 25(2), 167–172.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kwon, E. D., Zablocki, K., Jung, K. Y., Peters, E. M., Garcia-Perez, A., & Burg, M. B. (1995). Osmoregulation of GPC:choline phosphodiesterase in MDCK cells: different effects of urea and NaCl. American Journal of Physiology, 269((1 Pt 1)), C35–C41.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Laerke, H. N., Jensen, B. B., & Hojsgaard, S. (2000). In vitro fermentation pattern of D-tagatose is affected by adaptation of the microbiota from the gastrointestinal tract of pigs. Journal of Nutrition, 130(7), 1772–1779.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lanza, I. R., Zhang, S., Ward, L. E., Karakelides, H., Raftery, D., & Nair, K. S. (2010). Quantitative metabolomics by H-NMR and LC-MS/MS confirms altered metabolic pathways in diabetes. PLoS One, 5(5), e10538.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li, W., Liu, Y., He, Y. Q., Zhang, J. W., Gao, Y., Ge, G. B., et al. (2008). Characterization of triptolide hydroxylation by cytochrome P450 in human and rat liver microsomes. Xenobiotica, 38(12), 1551–1565.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, N., Liu, C. F., Xiao, C., Jia, H. W., Imada, K., Wu, H., et al. (2007). Triptolide, a diterpenoid triepoxide, suppresses inflammation and cartilage destruction in collagen-induced arthritis mice. Biochemical Pharmacology, 73(1), 136–146.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, M. X., Dong, J., Yang, Y. J., Yang, X. L., & Xu, H. B. (2008). Effect of poly(d, l-lactic acid) nanoparticles as triptolide carrier on abating rats renal toxicity by NMR-based metabolic analysis. Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 8(7), 3493–3499.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Macfarlane, S., & Macfarlane, G. T. (2003). Regulation of short-chain fatty acid production. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 62(1), 67–72.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Massey, K. A., Blakeslee, C. H., & Pitkow, H. S. (1998). A review of physiological and metabolic effects of essential amino acids. Amino Acids, 14(4), 271–300.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mei, Z., Li, X., Wu, Q., Hu, S., & Yang, X. (2005). The research on the anti-inflammatory activity and hepatotoxicity of triptolide-loaded solid lipid nanoparticle. Pharmacological Research, 51(4), 345–351.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Milhorat, A. T. (1953). Creatine and creatinine metabolism and diseases of the neuromuscular system. Research Publications—Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease, 32, 400–421.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Musfeld, C., Biollaz, J., Belaz, N., Kesselring, U. W., & Decosterd, L. A. (2001). Validation of an HPLC method for the determination of urinary and plasma levels of N1-methylnicotinamide, an endogenous marker of renal cationic transport and plasma flow. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 24(3), 391–404.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ni, B., Jiang, Z. Z., Huang, X., Xu, F. G., Zhang, R., Zhang, Z. J., et al. (2008). Male reproductive toxicity and toxicokinetics of triptolide in rats. Arzneimittel-Forschung-Drug Research, 58(12), 673–680.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Okuda, S., Yamada, T., Hamajima, M., Itoh, M., Katayama, T., Bork, P., et al. (2008). KEGG Atlas mapping for global analysis of metabolic pathways. Nucleic Acids Research, 36(Web Server issue), W423–W426.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Orlowski, M., & Wilk, S. (1978). Synthesis of ophthalmic acid in liver and kidney in vivo. Biochemical Journal, 170(2), 415–419.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Powers, R. (2009). NMR metabolomics and drug discovery. Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 47(Suppl 1), S2–S11.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Prince, P. S. M., & Kannan, N. K. (2006). Protective effect of rutin on lipids, lipoproteins, lipid metabolizing enzymes and glycoproteins in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 58(10), 1373–1383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, D. G., Reily, M. D., Sigler, R. E., Wells, D. F., Paterson, D. A., & Braden, T. K. (2000). Metabonomics: Evaluation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and pattern recognition technology for rapid in vivo screening of liver and kidney toxicants. Toxicological Sciences, 57(2), 326–337.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sakai, T., Yamamoto, K., Yokota, H., Hakozaki-Usui, K., Hino, F., & Kato, I. (1990). Rapid, simple enzymatic assay of free L-fucose in serum and urine, and its use as a marker for cancer, cirrhosis, and gastric ulcers. Clinical Chemistry, 36(3), 474–476.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sands, C. J., Coen, M., Maher, A. D., Ebbels, T. M., Holmes, E., Lindon, J. C., et al. (2009). Statistical total correlation spectroscopy editing of 1H NMR spectra of biofluids: Application to drug metabolite profile identification and enhanced information recovery. Analytical Chemistry, 81(15), 6458–6466.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Soga, T., Baran, R., Suematsu, M., Ueno, Y., Ikeda, S., Sakurakawa, T., et al. (2006). Differential metabolomics reveals ophthalmic acid as an oxidative stress biomarker indicating hepatic glutathione consumption. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 281(24), 16768–16776.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Solanky, K. S., Bailey, N. J., Beckwith-Hall, B. M., Davis, A., Bingham, S., Holmes, E., et al. (2003). Application of biofluid 1H nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomic techniques for the analysis of the biochemical effects of dietary isoflavones on human plasma profile. Analytical Biochemistry, 323(2), 197–204.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stipanuk, M. H. (2004). Sulfur amino acid metabolism: Pathways for production and removal of homocysteine and cysteine. Annual Review of Nutrition, 24, 539–577.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sturgess, J. M., Minaker, E., Mitranic, M. M., & Moscarello, M. A. (1973). The incorporation of l-fucose into glycoproteins in the Golgi apparatus of rat liver and in serum. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 320(1), 123–132.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tang, H. R., Wang, Y. L., Nicholson, J. K., & Lindon, J. C. (2004). Use of relaxation-edited one-dimensional and two dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to improve detection of small metabolites in blood plasma. Analytical Biochemistry, 325(2), 260–272.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Waldram, A., Holmes, E., Wang, Y., Rantalainen, M., Wilson, I. D., Tuohy, K. M., et al. (2009). Top-down systems biology modeling of host metabotype-microbiome associations in obese rodents. Journal of Proteome Research, 8(5), 2361–2375.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y., Holmes, E., Nicholson, J. K., Cloarec, O., Chollet, J., Tanner, M., et al. (2004). Metabonomic investigations in mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni: an approach for biomarker identification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101(34), 12676–12681.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Waterfield, C. J., Turton, J. A., Scales, M. D., & Timbrell, J. A. (1991). Taurine, a possible urinary marker of liver damage: A study of taurine excretion in carbon tetrachloride-treated rats. Archives of Toxicology, 65(7), 548–555.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Waterfield, C. J., Turton, J. A., Scales, M. D. C., & Timbrell, J. A. (1993). Investigations into the effects of various hepatotoxic compounds on urinary and liver taurine levels in rats. Archives of Toxicology, 67(4), 244–254.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wei, L., Liao, P., Wu, H., Li, X., Pei, F., Li, W., et al. (2009). Metabolic profiling studies on the toxicological effects of realgar in rats by (1)H NMR spectroscopy. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 234(3), 314–325.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weljie, A. M., Dowlatabadi, R., Miller, B. J., Vogel, H. J., & Jirik, F. R. (2007). An inflammatory arthritis-associated metabolite biomarker pattern revealed by 1H NMR spectroscopy. Journal of Proteome Research, 6(9), 3456–3464.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wishart, D. S., Tzur, D., Knox, C., Eisner, R., Guo, A. C., Young, N., et al. (2007). HMDB: the human metabolome database. Nucleic Acids Research, 35, D521–D526.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xia, S. G., Liu, H. L., Zhu, H., Zhou, Z. M., Zhang, X., & Liu, M. L. (2009). NMR-based metabonomic study on rat’s urinary metabolic response to dosage of triptolide. Chinese Journal of Chemistry, 27(4), 751–758.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xiao, Y., Ge, M., Xue, X., Wang, C., Wang, H., Wu, X., et al. (2008). Hepatic cytochrome P450s metabolize aristolochic acid and reduce its kidney toxicity. Kidney International, 73(11), 1231–1239.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xue, X., Gong, L., Qi, X., Wu, Y., Xing, G., Yao, J., et al. (2011). Knockout of hepatic P450 reductase aggravates triptolide-induced toxicity. Toxicology Letters, 205(1), 47–54.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yamauchi, M., Kimura, K., Maezawa, Y., Ohata, M., Mizuhara, Y., Hirakawa, J., et al. (1993). Urinary level of l-fucose as a marker of alcoholic liver-disease. Alcoholism-Clinical and Experimental Research, 17(2), 268–271.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yardim-Akaydin, S., Sepici, A., Ozkan, Y., Torun, M., Simsek, B., & Sepici, V. (2004). Oxidation of uric acid in rheumatoid arthritis: Is allantoin a marker of oxidative stress? Free Radical Research, 38(6), 623–628.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ye, X., Li, W., Yan, Y., Mao, C., Cai, R., Xu, H., et al. (2010). Effects of cytochrome P4503A inducer dexamethasone on the metabolism and toxicity of triptolide in rat. Toxicology Letters, 192(2), 212–220.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zablocki, K., Miller, S. P., Garcia-Perez, A., & Burg, M. B. (1991). Accumulation of glycerophosphocholine (GPC) by renal cells: Osmotic regulation of GPC:choline phosphodiesterase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 88(17), 7820–7824.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Erik Anderson and Professor Yi-zheng Wang for proof-reading, Professor Wen-sen Wu for histopathology evaluation, Hua Sheng, Heng-lei Lu, Bei-yan Liu, Cheng Zheng and Jing Lu for technical assistance. This work was supported by National Grand Fundamental Research 973 Program of China (Nos. 2006CB504700, 2007CB914304), National Science and Technology Major Project “Key New Drug Creation and Manufacturing Program”, China (Nos. 2009ZX09301-001, 2008ZX09305-007 and 2009ZX09501-033) and the Program of Shanghai Subject Chief Scientist (No. 09XD1405100).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Donghai Lin or Jin Ren.

Additional information

Xia Liu and Xiang Xue contribute equally to this work.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 5217 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Liu, X., Xue, X., Gong, L. et al. 1H NMR-based metabolomic analysis of triptolide-induced toxicity in liver-specific cytochrome P450 reductase knockout mice. Metabolomics 8, 907–918 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-011-0385-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-011-0385-1

Keywords

Navigation