Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate the regulation effects of the active ingredients in Gegenqinlian Decoction (GD) on the intestinal mucosal flora of mice with diarrhea induced by high temperature and humidity based on systems pharmacology approach. Fifteen mice were randomly assigned to three equal groups of five mice, namely control (ctcm) group, model (ctmm) group and treatment (cttm) group. Mice in the cttm group were given 20 mL/kg of GD and sterile water was used as a placebo control twice a day for four consecutive days. We used the third-generation molecular high-throughput sequencing technology to measure the intestinal mucosal flora changes in mice. Combined with network pharmacology to predict the medicinal substances and action targets of GD against diarrhea. Results showed that Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) number and Alpha diversity in the intestinal mucosal flora of cttm group recovered and higher than that of the ctcm group. There were differences in the community structure between the ctmm and cttm groups in the Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA). The relative abundance results indicated dominant bacteria species (such as Lactobacillus crispatus, Muribaculum intestinal, Neisseria mucosa) in the intestinal mucosa of the three groups. Moreover, we screened out 146 active ingredients in GD corresponding to 252 component targets, and 328 disease targets in diarrhea to obtain 31 drug–disease common targets. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks mainly involved the core proteins such as Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6). Enrichment analyses showed that GD played a role in the treatment of diarrhea by regulating the hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and adipocytokine signaling pathways and so on. In brief, the active ingredients of GD could intervene from oxidative stress and inflammatory response through multiple targets and multiple channels to adjust the balance of intestinal mucosa flora, thereby playing a role in the treatment of diarrhea.
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This study was approved by the Animal Ethics and Welfare Committee of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine.
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We thank all the scholars who provided relevant guidance for the study.
Funding
This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 81874460) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2019JJ50452). The author of this paper was in charge of the project, and Professor Zhoujin Tan is the project leader. Funding body provided approval for the manuscript and had no role in design of the study, analysis and interpretation of data.
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XL performed network analysis and drafted the manuscript; CZ analyzed the data; HH guided the performance of animal experiment; ZT designed the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The decision to submit the manuscript for publication was made by all the authors.
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This study was approved by the Animal Ethics and Welfare Committee of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine.
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Li, X., Zhang, C., Hui, H. et al. Effect of Gegenqinlian decoction on intestinal mucosal flora in mice with diarrhea induced by high temperature and humidity treatment. 3 Biotech 11, 83 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-020-02628-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-020-02628-0