The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between flavonoids in Abrus precatorius leaves (APL) and their hypoglycaemic effects, which have not been studied before. An efficient purification process, transcriptomics and network pharmacology analysis were applied for the first time. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine the content of total flavonoids. The results showed that D101 resin was most suitable for purification of flavonoids of APL, which could increase its purity from 25.2% to 85.2% and achieve a recovery rate of 86.9%. The analysis of transcriptomics and network pharmacology revealed that flavonoids of APL could play a hypoglycaemic role by regulating 31 targets through AGE-RAGE and other signal pathways. Flavonoids of APL could exert hydroglycaemic effects by inhibiting AGEs, α-glucosidase and DPPH. This study provides a solid basis for hypoglycaemic product development and in-depth research of flavonoids in APL.
Keywords: APL, Abrus precatorius leaves; HPLC, High-performance liquid chromatography; T2D, type 2 diabetes; AGEs, advanced glycation end products; LPS, lipopolysaccharide; DPPH, 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl; BV, bed volume; DEGs, differentially expressed genes; GO, gene ontology; KEGG, Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes.; Abrus precatorius L; hypoglycaemic activity; network pharmacology; purification; total flavonoids; transcriptomics.