Metabolomics Study on the Effects of Jieduquyuziyin Prescription on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Mice by LC-Q-TOF/MS

A metabolomics approach was applied to study the metabolites characters of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and therapeutical effects of jieduquyuziyin prescription (JP). High performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-TOF/MS) in positive mode was employed to analyze urine specimens of the SLE model mice (MRL/lpr) group, prednisone acetate (PA)-treated SLE mice group, JP-treated SLE mice group, and control group (C57BL/6 J). Software of Mass Hunter and Mass Profiler Professional (MPP) were used to process the data. Multivariate statistical analysis of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were applied to recognize the data pattern. PCA result showed that there were obvious disorders of amino acid metabolism in SLE model. Ten compounds have significant contributions to classification were identified as differential metabolites, such as glycine, pantetheine, and phenylpyruvic acid. Metabolism of phenylalanine tended to recover to the normal state after treatment with PA. The changes of glycine, phenylalanine, and tryptophan in SLE mice showed some alleviation in JP-treated SLE group. Thus, the JP has a good therapeutic effect on the SLE model mice by regulating the dysfunctions of amino acid metabolism. These results may be helpful to further understand the pathological mechanisms of SLE from the whole metabolism.