Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Analysis of Therapeutic Effect of Ilex hainanensis Merr. Extract on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease through Urine Metabolite Profiling by Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography/Quadrupole Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry

Table 2

Identification of significantly differential metabolites in the rat urine and their related pathways.


Metabolite	RT	Mass	Ion (/)	Formula	Ion mode	Model trend^a	Treatment trend^b	Related pathway

Allantoin	0.656	158.0393	157.0315	C₄H₆N₄O₃	ESI⁻	(*)↓	(*)↑	Purine metabolism
Hypoxanthine	0.672	136.0379	135.0301	C₅H₄N₄O	ESI⁻	(*)↑	(*)↓	Purine metabolism
Creatinine	0.679	113.0563	114.0641	C₄H₇N₃O	ESI⁺	(*)↑	(*)↓	Arginine and proline metabolism
Taurine	0.694	125.0150	124.0072	C₂H₇NO₃S	ESI⁻	(*)↓	(*)↑	Taurine and hypotaurine metabolism
Pyruvate	0.716	88.0138	87.0060	C₃H₄O₃	ESI⁻	(*)↑	(*)↓	Alanine metabolism; citric acid cycle; cysteine metabolism Glycolysis/gluconeogenesis; glycine and serine metabolism
Aconitic acid	0.735	174.0213	173.0135	C₆H₆O₆	ESI⁻	(*)↑	(#)↓	Citrate cycle
Citrate	0.737	192.0252	191.0174	C₆H₈O₇	ESI⁻	(*)↑	(*)↓	Citric acid cycle
Uric acid	0.775	168.0264	167.0186	C₅H₄N₄O₃	ESI⁻	(*)↑	(*)↓	Purine metabolism
Suberic acid	0.814	174.0846	175.0924	C₈H₁₄O₄	ESI⁺	(*)↑	(*)↓	Oleic acid degradation
cAMP	1.885	329.0545	330.0623	C₁₀H₁₂N₅O₆P	ESI⁺	(*)↑	(*)↓	Purine metabolism
Xanthine	2.427	152.0309	153.0387	C₅H₄N₄O₂	ESI⁺	(*)↑	(*)↓	Purine metabolism
L-Alanine	2.807	89.0475	88.0397	C₃H₇NO₂	ESI⁻	(*)↑	(*)↓	Alanine metabolism; glucose-alanine cycle; glycine and serine metabolism
Nicotinic acid	3.802	123.0314	122.1094	C₆H₅NO₂	ESI⁻	(*)↓	(*)↑	Tryptophan metabolism; nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism
Adipic acid	4.081	146.0562	145.0484	C₆H₁₀O₄	ESI⁻	(*)↑	(*)↓	Fatty acid metabolism
Indole-3-carboxylic acid	4.535	161.0475	160.0397	C₉H₇NO₂	ESI⁻	(*)↓	(*)↑	Tryptophan metabolism
3-Hydroxy-3-methyl-Glutaric acid	4.563	162.0512	161.434	C₆H₁₀O₅	ESI⁻	(*)↓	(*)↑	A metabolite that accumulates in the urine of patients affected by 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaric aciduria caused by reduced enzyme activity of the intramitochondrial 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA lyase, which catalyzes the final step of leucine degradation and plays a key role in ketone body formation.
Glycine	5.225	75.0320	74.0242	C₂H₅NO₂	ESI⁻	(*)↓	(*)↑	Glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism
2-Methylhippuric acid	5.244	193.0725	194.0803	C₁₀H₁₁NO₃	ESI⁺	(*)↑	(*)↓	Fatty acid metabolism
L-Tryptophan	5.830	204.0929	205.1007	C₁₁H₁₂N₂O₂	ESI⁺	(*)↑	(*)↓	Tryptophan metabolism
Succinate	5.974	118.0267	119.0346	C₄H₆O₄	ESI⁺	(*)↑	(*)↓	Citric acid cycle;
L-Cysteine	6.250	121.0191	122.0269	C₃H₇NO₂S	ESI⁺	(*)↓	(#)↓	Glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism;
Oleic acid	14.133	282.2626	283.2704	C₁₈H₃₄O₂	ESI⁺	(*)↓	(#)↓	Fatty acid biosynthesis

Compared to normal group. ^bCompared to model group. Arrow (↑) indicates relative increase in signal. Arrow (↓) indicates relative decrease in signal. Asterisk (*) represents a statistically significant difference (), while pound key (#) represents no statistically significant difference.