Urinary metabolic profiling of rat models revealed protective function of scoparone against alcohol induced hepatotoxicity

Alcohol-induced liver disease (ALD) is a leading cause of non-accident-related deaths in the world. Identification of an early specific signature of ALD would aid in therapeutic intervention. Scoparone is an important constituent of Yinchenhao, and displayed bright prospects in hepatoprotective effect. However, its precise molecular mechanism has not been well explored. The present study was designed to assess the effects and possible mechanisms of scoparone against alcohol-induced liver injury. UPLC/ESI-Q-TOF/MS combined with pattern recognition approaches including PCA, and PLS-DA were integrated to get differentiating metabolites for the pathways and clarify mechanisms of disease, highlight insights into drug discovery. The results indicated four ions in the positive mode were characterized as potential differentiating metabolites which can be regulated by scoparone treatment, and suggested that therapeutic effect of scoparone could regulated the dysfunctions of citrate cycle, sphingolipid metabolism, taurine and hypotaurine.