Mechanism of Xinfeng Capsule on Adjuvant-Induced Arthritis via Analysis of Urinary Metabolomic Profiles

We aimed to explore the potential effects of Xinfeng capsule (XFC) on urine metabolic profiling in adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) rats by using gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF/MS). GC-TOF/MS technology was combined with multivariate statistical approaches, such as principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). These methods were used to distinguish the healthy group, untreated group, and XFC treated group and elucidate potential biomarkers. Nine potential biomarkers such as hippuric acid, adenine, and L-dopa were identified as potential biomarkers, indicating that purine metabolism, fat metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and energy metabolism were disturbed in AA rats. This study demonstrated that XFC is efficacious for RA and explained its potential metabolomics mechanism.