UPLC-Q-TOF/MS Based Plasma Metabolomics for Identification of Paeonol’s Metabolic Target in Endometriosis

Jing Liu, Dongxia Yang, Chengyu Piao, Xu Wang, Xiaolan Sun, Yongyan Li, Shuxiang Zhang, Xiuhong Wu
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023 · vol. 28(2) , pp. 653 · doi:10.3390/molecules28020653 · PMID:36677710 · W4313890046
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 3 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This study identified GCH1, RPL8, PKLR, and MAOA as key targets of paeonol in treating endometriosis using UPLC-Q-TOF/MS metabolomics and network pharmacology.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a common gynecological illness in women of reproductive age that significantly decreases life quality and fertility. Paeonol has been shown to play an important part in endometriosis treatments. Understanding the mechanism is critical for treating endometriosis. In this study, autologous transplantation combined with a 28 day ice water bath was used to create a rat model of endometriosis with cold clotting and blood stagnation. The levels of estradiol and progesterone in plasma were detected by ELISA, and the pathological changes of ectopic endometrial tissue were examined by H&E staining, which proved the efficacy of paeonol. For metabolomic analysis of plasma samples, UPLC-Q/TOF-MS was combined with multivariate statistical analysis to identify the influence of paeonol on small molecule metabolites relevant to endometriosis. Finally, the key targets were screened using a combination of network pharmacology and molecular docking approaches. The results showed that the pathological indexes of rats were improved and returned to normal levels after treatment with paeonol, which was the basis for confirming the efficacy of paeonol. Metabolomics results identified 13 potential biomarkers, and paeonol callbacks 7 of them, involving six metabolic pathways. Finally, four key genes were found for paeonol therapy of endometriosis, and the results of molecular docking revealed a significant interaction between paeonol and the four key genes. This study was successful in establishing a rat model of endometriosis with cold coagulation and blood stagnation. GCH1, RPL8, PKLR, and MAOA were the key targets of paeonol in the treatment of endometriosis. It is also demonstrated that metabolomic techniques give the potential and environment for comprehensively understanding drug onset processes.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Drugs, Chinese Herbal Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

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