Screening hepatoprotective effective components of Lonicerae japonica Flos based on the spectrum-effect relationship and its mechanism exploring

Abstract

Lonicerae japonicae Flos (LF) is a kind of healthcare food with hepatoprotective function. This study was designed to explore the spectrum-effect relationships between UPLC fingerprints and the hepatoprotective effects of LF. Fingerprints of ten batches of LF were established by UPLC-PDA. The inhibitory levels of AST and ALT were used as pharmacological indexes, and secoxyloganin, isochlorogenic acid A and isochlorogenic acid C were screened as hepatoprotective active compounds by grey relational analysis (GRA) and partial least squares regression analysis (PLSR). Caspase-3 was obtained by network pharmacology as a key target of hepatoprotective active compounds. Molecular docking is used to explore the interaction between small molecules and proteins. This work provided a general model of the combination of UPLC-PDA and hepatoprotective effect to study the spectrum-effect relationship of LF, which can be used to considerable methods and insight for the fundamental research of the material basis of similar healthcare food.

Keywords

• Lonicerae japonicae Flos
• Hepatoprotective effect
• Spectrum-effect relationship
• Molecular docking
• Mechanism