Abstract
Ginsenoside Rc is one of the active components of “nao-mai-tong,” which is a traditional Chinese medicine prescription widely used in the treatment of cerebral ischemia. Ginsenoside Rc has remarkable effects on the protection of the nervous system, but the molecular mechanism underlying its neuroprotective activity remains unclear. Thus, we aimed to integrate serum and network pharmacology to investigate the neuroprotective effect and potential mechanism of this ginsenoside for ischemic stroke. In this study, ginsenoside Rc was identified by liquid chromatography–Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry system in the “nao-mai-tong” decoction. Network pharmacology and molecular docking simulation were employed to predict the potential targets and pharmacological mechanisms of ginsenoside Rc. Finally, oxygen-glucose deprivation reperfusion model of neuronal damage was induced in PC12 cells for verification of the decoction activity. Ginsenoside Rc was identified in “nao-mai-tong”-containing plasma and the analysis of bioinformatics indicated its key targets to be TNF-α and DRP-1. Besides, ginsenoside Rc reversed the alterations of TNF-α and DRP-1 level after oxygen-glucose deprivation reperfusion injury in a dose-dependent manner as indicated by experiments with antagonists.
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Acknowledgements
Technology Funds were obtained from the Key Unit of Chinese Medicine Digitalization Quality Evaluation of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We thank Haibin Luo from Sun Yat-sen University for technical assistance in SYBYL.
Funding
This research is supported by Projects of The National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 81773884, 81473413, and 81274060), the National Major Scientific and Technological Special Project for “Significant New Drugs Development” during the Thirteenth Five – year Plan Period (grant numbers 2017ZX09301077), and the Science and Technology Plan Project of Guangzhou (grant number 201803010115).
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MX and SW conceived and designed the idea; KL and MH performed the experiments; MH analyzed the data; SC, KZ, and QL performed network pharmacology analysis; MX and MH wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Animal studies were carried out in accordance with the Guidelines for Animal Experimentation of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, and the protocol was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of this institution (protocol number: gdpulac2017130).
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Huang, M., Chen, S., Zheng, K. et al. Integrated LC-MS/MS Method and Network Pharmacology for Exploring the Mechanism of Neuroprotective Effect of Ginsenoside Rc in Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation/Reperfusion Injury. Rev. Bras. Farmacogn. 31, 207–216 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43450-021-00145-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43450-021-00145-6