Metabolomic Study of Biochemical Changes Related to Toxicity Induced by Bupleurotoxin Using LC-MS Coupled with a Pattern Recognition Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to detect changes in urine of mice and to clarify the toxicity induced by bupleurotoxin (BETX) using liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-Q-TOF-MS). A procedure for urine analysis using pattern recognition was proposed to evaluate the toxicity induced by BETX in male BALB/c mice. BETX at 2.5 mg/kg was administrated intraperitoneally (i.p.), and urine samples for the metabolomic study were collected from control and BETX experimental groups. Changes in the concentrations of some urine metabolites were detected exclusively in the experimental group. All results suggested that exposure to BETX might cause a disturbance in fatty acid metabolism and the oxidative stress system. These results may not only clarify the underlying mechanism of diverse intoxication effects of BETX but also provide the guidance in preclinical toxicity screening for new drugs.

Keywords

• bupleurotoxin
• metabolomic profiling
• toxicity
• biomarker
• LC-Q-TOF-MS