Liver and urine metabolomics reveal the protective effect of Gandou decoction in copper-laden Hepatolenticular degeneration model rats.

Hepatolenticular degeneration (HLD) is an inherited disorder associated with human copper metabolism. Gandou decoction (GDD), a traditional Chinese medicinal formula, has been used as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of HLD in China for decades. Recent pharmacological evaluation in our laboratory has demonstrated that GDD exerts positive and beneficial effects on HLD model rats. However, its underlying therapeutic mechanisms are not yet well understood. To explore the potential therapeutic effects of GDD against HLD, liver and urine metabolomics approach combined with histopathological examination were performed to reveal the underlying mechanisms. Changes in metabolic profiles were estimated by ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) coupled with multivariate statistical analyses. The results indicated that GDD could significantly improve liver pathological variations. Moreover, 19 and 11 significantly altered metabolites were found in the liver and urine between the normal and model groups, respectively. After GDD treatment, the levels of all these disordered metabolites showed different degrees of improvement compared with the model group, including lysoPC(18:2), lysoPE(20:2/0:0), PC(18:1/14:1), alpha-linolenic acid, sphinganine, taurochenodesoxycholic acid, tetracosahexaenoic acid, 13-OxoODE, and 13-L-hydroperoxyl inoleic acid. Metabolic pathway enrichment suggested that lipid and oxidative stress metabolism were the two main pathways that participated in copper-laden rat models with GDD administration. This work indicates that GDD could achieve a therapeutic effect on HLD by ameliorating the associated metabolic disturbances.