%0 Journal Article
%T Potential Anti-Pneumonia Bioactive Compounds of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma Following Gan An He Ji Oral Liquid Treatment
%A Sophia Davies
%A William Brown
%A Emma Wilson
%J Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy
%@ 3062-4436
%D 2021
%V 1
%N 1
%R 10.51847/EKlViUjMo4
%P 144-160
%X Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, commonly known as Gan Cao (GC), is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine formulations for pneumonia management, yet its active pharmacological constituents in this context remain largely uninvestigated. Gan An He Ji oral liquid (GAHJ), a clinically used preparation composed of GC extracts and paregoric, was selected as a model compound to explore GC’s therapeutic components for pneumonia. In a clinical study, patients with pneumonia received GAHJ treatment for three days, and intelligent mass spectrometry-based data analysis was employed to characterize GC metabolism in vivo. This approach identified 168 GC-related compounds in humans, including 24 prototype compounds and 144 metabolites, of which 135 detected in plasma and 82 in urine. By assessing metabolic transformation patterns and relative systemic exposure, six compounds—liquiritin, liquiritigenin, glycyrrhizin, glycyrrhetinic acid, daidzin, and formononetin—were proposed as potential active components. Experimental validation using two animal pneumonia models and an inflammatory cell model demonstrated that the combination of these six compounds alleviated pneumonia and lung injury while significantly reducing inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) levels. Notably, glycyrrhetinic acid showed the highest in vivo exposure and the strongest iNOS inhibitory effect, which was further supported by molecular dynamics simulations revealing a stable interaction between glycyrrhetinic acid and iNOS. Overall, this study provides a pharmacological rationale for GC and elucidates potential mechanisms underlying its efficacy in pneumonia treatment.
%U https://galaxypub.co/article/potential-anti-pneumonia-bioactive-compounds-of-glycyrrhizae-radix-et-rhizoma-following-gan-an-he-ji-qlbruqzxqgtlm2a