Comparative proteomics reveals biochemical changes in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge during sweating processing

J Ethnopharmacol. 2022 Jul 15:293:115329. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2022.115329. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

Abstract

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is a bulk medicinal material used in traditional Chinese medicine, that can cure cardiovascular diseases, neurasthenia, and other conditions. Sweating is a frequently used method of processing S. miltiorrhiza for medical applications. We previously demonstrated changes to the metabolic profile of linoleic acid, glyoxylate, and dicarboxylate after Sweating. However, this alteration has not been explained at the molecular level.

Materials and methods: Fresh roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge were treated by the Sweating processing, and then the tandem mass tag technique was used to compare the proteome difference between Sweating S. miltiorrhiza and non-Sweating S. miltiorrhiza.

Results: We identified a total of 850 differentially expressed proteins after Sweating treatment in S. miltiorrhiza, including 529 upregulated proteins and 321 downregulated proteins. GO enrichment analysis indicated that these differentially expressed proteins are involved in external encapsulating structure, cell wall, oxidoreductase activity, ligase activity, and others. Further analysis showed that CYP450, the pathogenesis-related protein Bet v 1 family, and the peroxidase domain were the major protein domains. KEGG enrichment identified 18 pathways, of which phenylpropanoid biosynthesis is the most important one related to the metabolite profile and is the principal chemical component of S. miltiorrhiza.

Conclusion: This study addressed potential molecular mechanisms in S. miltiorrhiza after Sweating, and the findings provide reasons for the changes in biochemical properties and metabolites changes which might cause pharmacological variation at the proteome level.

Keywords: Comparative proteomics; Salvia miltiorrhiza; Sweating; TMT.

MeSH terms

  • Medicine, Chinese Traditional
  • Plant Roots / metabolism
  • Proteome
  • Proteomics
  • Salvia miltiorrhiza* / chemistry
  • Sweating

Substances

  • Proteome