Objective: To explore the mechanisms of Qianlie Jindan Tablets (QLJD) acting on chronic nonbacterial prostatitis (CNP) in rats based on non-targeted urine metabolomics.
Methods: According to the body mass index, we equally randomized 30 eight-week-old male SD rats into a blank control, a CNP model control and a QLJD medication group. We established the CNP model in the latter groups and, from the 4th day of modeling, treated the rats in the blank and model control groups intragastrically with normal saline and those in the QLJD medication group with QLJD suspension, qd, for 30 successive days. Then we detected the changes in the metabolites of the rats by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and identified the differential metabolites in different groups by multivariate statistical analysis, followed by functional annotation of the differential metabolites.
Results: Eight common metabolites were identified by metabolomics analysis, of which 5 were decreased in the CNP model controls and increased in the QLJD medication group, while the other 3 increased in the former and decreased in the latter group. Creatinine and genistein were important differential metabolites, and the arginine and proline metabolic pathways and isoflavone biosynthesis pathways were the main ones for QLJD acting on CNP. Compared with the blank controls, the model controls showed up-regulated arginine and proline metabolic pathways, increased production of creatinine, down-regulated isoflavone biosynthetic pathway and decreased production of genistein. The above changes in the model controls were all reversed in the QLJD medication group.
Conclusion: QLJD acts effectively on CNP in male rats by regulating L-arginine and proline metabolic pathways, as well as the isoflavone biosynthesis pathway and naringenin metabolism.
Keywords: chronic nonbacterial prostatitis; ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry; urine metabolomics; arginine; naringenin; genistein.