An activity-integrated strategy of the identification, screening and determination of potential neuraminidase inhibitors from Radix Scutellariae

PLoS One. 2017 May 9;12(5):e0175751. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175751. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Small molecules isolated from herbal medicines (HMs) were identified as the potential neuraminidase inhibitors which are effective in influenza prevention and treatment. Unfortunately, current available screen methods of small molecules isolated from HMs are inefficient and insensitive. Here a novel Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with diode-array detectors and auto-fraction collector / time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-DAD-FC/Q-TOF-MS) screening method with high efficiency was developed and validated to separate, collect, enrich, identify and quantify potential neuraminidase inhibitors from Radix Scutellariae. The results showed that 26 components with neuraminidase inhibitory activity were identified from Radix Scutellariae extracts. It was also found that the influence of origins on the quality of RS was more than that of cultivated time on the basis of the concentration of the effective components. These results brought novel insights into quality evaluation of Radix Scutellariae. It was demonstrated that new activity-integrated strategy was a suitable technique for the identification, screening and determination of potential neuraminidase inhibitors in herbal medicine and will provide novel potential strategies in other drug screening from herbal medicine.

MeSH terms

  • Antiviral Agents / isolation & purification*
  • Antiviral Agents / pharmacology
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / isolation & purification*
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Herbal Medicine
  • Humans
  • Neuraminidase / analysis*
  • Plant Extracts / chemistry
  • Plant Extracts / pharmacology
  • Scutellaria baicalensis / chemistry*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Substances

  • Antiviral Agents
  • Enzyme Inhibitors
  • Plant Extracts
  • Neuraminidase

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81374050), National Science and Technology Support Program Projects (2014BA105B01), PCSIRT (IRT-14R41) and State the Science & Technology Commission of MOST of China (2014ZX09304307001). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.