Effects of Echinacea Extract on Intestinal Metabolomics
in Immunosuppressive Rats
Jiali Yang1, Yucheng Guan1, Jiaxin Chen1,
Yalin Su1, Shiwei Zhang1, Khalid Mehmood2,
Muhammad Usman Saleem3 and Dayou Shi1*
1College
of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University,
Guangzhou 510642, China
2Department
of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, The Islamia
University of Bahawalpur-63100, Pakistan
3Department
of Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya
University Multan, Pakistan
*Corresponding author:
shidayou@scau.edu.cn
Abstract
Echinacea purpurea
is known as an important herbal medicine and has been frequently used for over
last 300 years as a medicinal herb. This herb is well known for its effects on
immune system, which can change the contents of different metabolites in
animals. The mechanisms of its immunoregulation on various metabolomics are
poorly known and are still unclear. Therefore, this study was executed to
explore the effects of cyclophosphamide (CY) on normal control group (NC group)
treated with sterile saline) and
treatment group exposed to Echinacea extract
(EE) to determine the effects on immunosuppression group (IS
group, induced by CY) and its association with metabolomics. Here we reported
that body weight, indices of immune organs, serum biochemical and cytokine
contents were affected by CY and EE had the potential to reverse adverse effects
through increasing IFN-γ and TNF-α level, significantly increased quantity of
total protein (TP), and albumin (ALB). The results on the Gas
Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer(GC-MS) technique illustrated that amino acid
and energy metabolism involved in differential metabolites between IS and NC
groups with vitamin B6 metabolism, pantothenate, and coenzyme A(CoA)
biosynthesis metabolic pathways. Results indicated that myo-inositol, lactic
acid, pyruvate are potential marker substances between EE-IS group and IS group
with a principal impact on the metabolic pathways including inositol phosphate
metabolism, phosphatidylinositol signaling system, ascorbate and aldarate
metabolism and pyruvate metabolism. Overall, this study identified the
involvement of different metabolites pathways of EE in immunosuppression rats
which provided valuable evidence of EE immunoregulation effect via metabolomics
and multiple bioanalytic methods.
To Cite This Article:
Yang J, Guan Y, Chen J, Su Y, Zhang S, Mehmood K, Saleem MU, Shi D
2022.
Effects of echinacea extract on intestinal metabolomics in immunosuppressive
rats.
Pak Vet J, 42(3): 390-396. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2022.041