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Hepatoprotective effect of forsythiaside a against acetaminophen-induced liver injury in zebrafish: Coupling network pharmacology with biochemical pharmacology

作者 Gong, Lihong; Zhou, Honglin; Wang, Cheng; He, Linfeng; Guo, Chaocheng; Peng, Cheng; Li, Yunxia

期刊 JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY , MAY 10 2021,:271

DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2021.113890 PubMed 33516931

摘要 Ethnopharmacological relevance: Forsythiae Fructus, the dried fruit of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl, is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine and possesses various pharmacological activities, including anti inflammation, anti-oxidant and liver protection.Aim of the study: Although acetaminophen (APAP) has been frequently used for its antipyretic and analgesic effects, it leads to liver injury at an overdose or long-term medication. Forsythiaside A (FA), the principal active component of Forsythiae Fructus, exerts prominent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective effects. However, the protective property and underlying mechanism of FA against APAP challenge have not yet been elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to explore the hepatoprotective effect and action mechanism of FA against APAP-induced liver injury in zebrafish.Materials and methods: In this study, liver-specific transgenic zebrafish larvae (lfabp: EGFP) were used to investigate the protective effect of FA against overdose APAP exposure. The liver phenotype, morphological and biochemical assessments were carried out to evaluate the hepatoprotective effect of FA. Network pharmacology and molecular docking study were conducted to analyze the potential targets of FA in the treatment of APAPinduced liver injury. Finally, the mechanism of action was verified by reverse transcription quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).Results: The liver phenotype, morphological and biochemical assessments indicated that FA could mitigate APAPtriggered liver injury. Network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis indicated that the protective effect of FA might be related to the regulation of targets tumor necrosis factor (TNF), matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9), matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2), and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). PCR results confirmed that FA could reverse the progressive alterations of genes involving in extracellular matrix remolding and PI3K/ AKT-mediated apoptosis signaling pathway.Conclusions: Our results indicated that FA could mitigate APAP-induced liver injury through modulating the remolding of extracellular matrix and PI3K/AKT-mediated apoptosis.

涉及物种 连翘 Forsythia suspensa