Qingfu Guanjieshu (QFGJS) is an
herbal preparation for treating
rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Previous studies revealed that QFGJS significantly inhibited
experimental arthritis and acute
inflammation, accompanied by reduction of proinflammatory
cytokines and elevation of anti-inflammatory
cytokines. This study aims to identify the targeted
proteins and predict the proteomic network associated with the
drug action of QFGJS by using 2D gel and MALDI-TOF-MS/MS techniques. Thirty female Wistar rats were evenly grouped as normal and vehicle- and QFGJS-treated CIA rats. The antiarthritic effect of QFGJS was examined with a 19-day treatment course, and the knee synovial tissues of animals from each group were obtained for 2D gel and MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analysis. Results showed that QFGJS significantly ameliorated
collagen II-induced
arthritis when administrated at 2.8 g/kg
body weight for 19 days. 2D gel image analysis revealed 89 differentially expressed
proteins in the synovial tissues among the normal and vehicle- and QFGJS-treated CIA rats from over 1000
proteins of which 63
proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analysis, and 32
proteins were included for classification of functions using Gene Ontology (GO) method. Finally, 14
proteins were analyzed using bioinformatics, and a predicted proteomic network related to the anti-arthritic effect of QFGJS was established, and Pgk1 plays a central role.