The mechanism of action of Ophiocordyceps sinensis mycelia for prevention of acute lung injury based on non-targeted serum metabolomics

Jinna Zhou; Na Pi; Yingqi Guo; Xinyi He; Jinhu Wang; Run Luo; Mu Wang; Hong Yu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0287331

The mechanism of action of Ophiocordyceps sinensis mycelia for prevention of acute lung injury based on non-targeted serum metabolomics

PLoS One. 2023 Jun 16;18(6):e0287331. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287331. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jinna Zhou^{1

2}, Na Pi³, Yingqi Guo⁴, Xinyi He¹, Jinhu Wang², Run Luo¹, Mu Wang⁵, Hong Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Ecology and Environment Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
² School of Ecology and Environment, Tibet University, Lhasa City, China.
³ Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
⁴ Institutional Center for Shared Technologies and Facilities of Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
⁵ Plant Science College, Tibet Agriculture & Animal Husbandry University, Nyingchi, China.

Abstract

Ophiocordyceps sinensis is a fungus with medicinal value in treating lung diseases, but no study has reported how to prevent acute lung injury using this fungus. The mice were divided into normal, model, positive control, and O. sinensis groups to observe lung histopathological sections and transmission electron microscopy, along with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining to closely identify structural differences resulting from destruction between the groups. The results of the H&E staining showed that, compared with the normal group, the model group showed alveolar collapse. Compared with the model group, the infiltration of inflammatory cells in the alveolar cavity of the O. sinensis group was significantly reduced. Mitochondrial plate-like cristae were observed in type II alveolar cells of the normal group, with normal coloration of the mitochondrial matrix. Type II alveolar cells in the model group showed obvious edema. The statuses of type II alveolar cells in the O. sinensis and positive groups were similar to that in the normal group. Twenty-nine biomarkers and 10 related metabolic pathways were identified by serum metabolomics screening. The results showed that O. sinensis mycelia had a significant effect on the prevention of lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation.

Copyright: © 2023 Zhou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Acute Lung Injury* / prevention & control
Animals
Cordyceps*
Lung
Metabolomics
Mice
Mycelium

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Professor Yu Hong under the auspices of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31870017). The project is titled "Research on the Resources, Classification, and Systematics of Cordyceps in Southeast Asia". Additionally, this study was also supported by Professor Wang Mu's National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31270068), The project name is: Research on the Genetic Diversity and Quality Correlation of Ophiocordyceps sinensis in Tibet. unfortunately, the reform and development of local colleges and universities special fund project (Grant Nos. KY2022ZY-02) and Tibet University graduate high-level talent training program(2020-GSP-B014) had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.