Understanding Radix Angelica sinensis Blood Replenishing mechanisms on Blood Deficiency Rats Based on a UPLC-Q/TOF-MS Metabolomics and Network Pharmacology

Radix Angelica sinensis (RAS) is a famous Chinese medicine with hematinic effects and has been applied for the treatment of blood deficiency syndrome for many years. Previous studies have indicated that RAS has beneficial effects in the treatment of hemolytic anemia. The hemolytic anemia/blood deficiency syndrome is a common syndrome that is often presented in most traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinics. Based on routine blood indicators, metabolomics analysis was conducted to investigate the mechanism of RAS in the treatment of hemolytic anemia. Multivariate and univariate statistical analysis were used to identify potential biomarkers in the serum. On administering RAS to the haemololitic anaemic rat, the levels of WBC, RBC, HGB, and PLT in AG tended to shift toward that of the control group. Additionally, all the 26 metabolites such as cholic acid, succinic acid and orotate which are regulated by blood deficiency appeared normal through the five metabolic pathways, such as linoleic acid metabolism, alanine, aspartic acid and glutamate metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism. Thus, three metabolic pathways predicted by the network pharmacology were consistent with the metabolism pathway of Angelica sinensis: linoleic acid metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, tryptophan metabolism. The integrated metabolomics and network pharmacology comprehensively improved the understanding of the physiological and metabolic state of an organism. The possible hematopoietic effects and underlying mechanism of action on hemolytic anemia rats after lavage with RAS water extracts, could potentially be elucidated by combining pharmacology with untargeted metabolomics. These pointed out the significance of metabolomics as a valuable tool for studying the essence of Chinese medicine’s syndrome theory and the mechanism of RAS under anti-blood deficiency syndrome.