Polysaccharide from Suanzaoren decoction, a traditional Chinese medicine, may inhibit immunodeficiency-induced insomnia by regulating specific metabolic pathways.
The study first created detailed physical and chemical models of immunodeficiency insomnia to reflect the complex, multi-target nature of the condition. The serum samples from these models were then subjected to ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight-mass spectrometry to identify and quantify endogenous metabolites. Post this, principal component analysis was implemented to differentiate the groups, and partial least squares discriminate analysis was conducted to ascertain the crucial variables. The effects of total polysaccharide administration on the serum metabolic profiling were then scrutinized.
The results showed 21 potential biomarkers linked to vitamin, sphingolipid, bile acid, phospholipid, and acylcarnitine metabolisms had their levels inverted to different extents in the polysaccharide treated groups. Having established the association of these biomarkers primarily with the mentioned metabolisms, the investigation concluded that total polysaccharide could counter insomnia instigated by immunodeficiency through controlling these metabolic pathways.
