Exploring the mechanism of Sendeng-4 against rheumacid arthritis through integrated serum pharmacochemistry, transcriptomics, and network pharmacology.

Mongolian medicine Sendeng-4 (SD-4) has demonstrated satisfactory clinical treatment outcomes for rheumatoid arthritis (RA); nevertheless, its bioactive components and the related mechanisms have not yet been clearly elucidated. To explore the bioactive chemical components of SD-4 in the treatment of RA and its possible mechanisms, an High Performance Liquid Chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was established to simultaneously quantify the main components in SD-4, and ultraperformance LC-Q-Exactive-MS/MS (UPLC-Q-Exactive-MS/MS) was used to identify the phytochemicals absorbed in the serum. Then, using network pharmacology methods, these components were constructed into a compound-target network of RA to predict possible biological targets of SD-4 as well as potential signaling pathways.