The Chinese herbal prescription Kang-Gong-Yan alleviates cervicitis by modulating metabolites and gut microbiota

Abstract

Context

Cervicitis is a common gynecological inflammatory disease. The Chinese herbal prescription Kang-Gong-Yan (KGY) is clinically effective against cervicitis; however, the chemical constituents and therapeutic mechanism of KGY remain elusive.

Objective

To analyze the chemical constituents of KGY and explore the potential mechanism of KGY in treating cervicitis.

Materials and methods

UHPLC-Q-Exactive Plus Orbitrap MS was used to identify the active compounds of KGY; Sprague-Dawley (SD) female rats were randomly divided into the control, model, and KGY groups. Phenol mucilage (25%) was slowly injected into the vagina and cervix of the rats to establish the cervicitis model. Then, rats in the KGY groups (low dose: 1 g/kg/d; medium dose: 5 g/kg/d; high dose: 10 g/kg/d) were continuously gavaged KGY for one week. HE staining was used to observe the cervical tissues of rats; ELISA was used to detect inflammatory factors in plasma; non-targeted metabolomics was used to analyze metabolites; 16S rRNA sequencing was used to analyze intestinal microorganisms.

Results

KGY exerted anti-cervicitis effects and decreased the levels of IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α. The mechanism of KGY in treating cervicitis is mainly associated with betaine, amino acid, pyrimidine, and phospholipid metabolism by regulating fifteen metabolites. Moreover, KGY reversed cervicitis-induced gut dysbiosis by mediating five bacteria.

Discussion and conclusions

The Chinese herbal prescription KGY may alleviate cervicitis by modulating metabolites and gut microbiota disorders. These findings provide a scientific basis for the clinical application of KGY and a new strategy for treating cervicitis in Chinese medicine.

Keywords:

• Kang-Gong-Yan soft capsule
• chemical compounds identification
• metabolomics
• intestinal microorganisms

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank all those who contributed to this study.

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization, ZYN, YMY, ZM and GXL; Data curation, ZYN and YMY; Formal analysis, ZYN, YMY, SXD and WPJ; Investigation, ZYN, YMY, SXD and WPJ; Methodology, ZYN, YMY, SXD, WPJ, MXX and ZS; Project administration, LW, ZM and GXL; Software, ZYN, YMY, SXD, WPJ, MXX, ZS and LW; Supervision, ZM and GXL; Writing - original draft, ZYN and YMY; Writing - review & editing, ZYN, YMY, SXD, WPJ, MXX, ZS, LW, ZM and GXL. The views and conclusions of this study were reviewed and approved by all the authors.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest regarding the research, authorship, or publication of this article.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 82260810] and the Kang-Gong-Yan Soft Capsule Technology Cooperation Development Project [No. 2020702].