This study aimed to investigate the effect of Pikang oral liquid (PK) on psoriasis and analyze its possible mechanism from the perspective of metabolism. A psoriasis-form mouse model established using imiquimod (IMQ) was used to evaluate the anti-psoriatic effects of PK. The serum samples were analyzed by high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H NMR)-based metabonomics. Nine amino acids were further quantitatively analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF MS). This study suggested that PK treatment markedly attenuated IMQ-induced psoriasis in a dose-dependent manner. 1 H NMR-based multivariate trajectory analysis revealed that PK had a certain regression effect on eight differential metabolites. The quantitative results showed that PK could significantly regulate the serum levels of alanine, histidine and arginine to healthy control levels. The anti-psoriasis mechanism of PK may be associated with the restoration of the disturbance in the amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism and lipid metabolism and so on. Quantitative results further confirmed that amino acid metabolism play an key role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Our investigation provided a holistic view of PK for intervention psoriasis and provided the scientific information in vivo about a clinical value of PK for psoriasis.
Keywords: Pikang oral liquid; amino acid; metabolites; metabolomics; psoriasis.
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