Objective

2

To analyze the antidepressant quality markers（Q-Marker） of Bupleuri Radix（BP） before and after vinegar-processing by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry（UPLC-Q-TOF-MS）， multivariate statistical analysis and network pharmacology.

Method

2

UPLC-Q-TOF-MS was used to analyze the chemical basis of raw and vinegar-processed products of BP， and principal component analysis（PCA） orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis（OPLS-DA） were used to identify the differential components in BP that changed significantly before and after vinegar-processing， which were regarded as candidate quality markers（Q-Marker）. Then the disease-drug-component-target network related to antidepressant effect of BP was constructed by network pharmacology， and the antidepressant Q-Marker of raw and vinegar-processed products of BP was determined. Rats were randomly divided into blank group， model group， fluoxetine group（2.67 mg·kg

-1

） and total saponin group（0.72 mg·kg

-1

）， except the blank group， rats in the other groups were subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress（CUMS）. Three weeks after the start of modeling， rats in each administration group were given the corresponding dose of drugs once a day for 4 weeks， and rats in the blank and model groups were given normal saline with dose of 10 mL·kg

-1

. At 1 day before modeling， 21 days and 28 days after administration， body mass weighing， sucrose preference test and open field test were performed on each group . After 28 days of administration， real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction（Real-time PCR） was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase（PI3K）， protein kinase B（Akt）， mammalian target of rapamycin（mTOR）， glycogen synthase kinase-3

β

（GSK-3

β

）， forkhead box transcription factor O3a（FoxO3a） and

β

-catenin in hippocampal tissues of rats in each group， while protein expression levels of PI3K， Akt， mTOR and FoxO3a in hippocampal tissues of rats in each group were detected by Western blot.

Result

2

There were 19 components in BP showed significant changes before and after vinegar-processing， and 9 components such as saikosaponin A， saikosaponin B

1

， saikosaponin B

2

， saikosaponin C and saikosaponin D were identified as potential Q-Marker through S-plot differential marker screening. Combined with the disease-drug-component-target network， saikosaponin A， saikosaponin B

1

， saikosaponin B

2

and saikosaponin D were identified as antidepressant Q-Marker of raw and vinegar-processed products of BP. According to the results of pharmacodynamic tests， after 28 d of administration， compared with the blank group， the body mass， sucrose preference index and open field total score of rats in model group， fluoxetine group and total saponin group decreased significantly（

P

<

0.01）. Compared with the model group， the body mass， sucrose preference index and open field total score in total saponin group increased significantly（

P

<

0.01）. Compared with the blank group， mRNA expression levels of PI3K， Akt， mTOR and

β

-catenin in hippocampus of rats in the model group decreased significantly（

P

<

0.05）， while mRNA expression levels of GSK-3

β

and FoxO3a increased significantly（

P

<

0.05）. Compared with the model group， mRNA expression levels of PI3K， Akt， mTOR and

β

-catenin in hippocampus of rats in the total saponin group were increased significantly（

P

<

0.05）， while mRNA expression levels of GSK-3

β

and FoxO3a decreased significantly（

P

<

0.05）. Compared with the blank group， the protein expression levels of Akt and mTOR in hippocampus of the model group decreased significantly（

P

<

0.01）， while the protein expression levels of PI3K and FoxO3a increased significantly（

P

<

0.01）. Compared with the model group， the expression level of Akt in hippocampus of the total saponin group increased significantly（

P

<

0.01）， the mTOR expression level was increased but not statistically significant， while the protein expression levels of PI3K and FoxO3a decreased significantly（

P

<

0.01）.

Conclusion

2

The chemical constituents of BP changed greatly after vinegar-processing， and the antidepressant Q-Marker of raw and vinegar-processed products of BP was determined by chemical basis， pharmacodynamics， network pharmacology and signaling pathway， which provided a reference for further research on quality control， pharmacodynamic substance basis and processing mechanism of BP.