Metabolomic Differences Between Wild and Cultivated Ophiocordyceps sinensis Identify Source-Associated Metabolites with Predicted Antifibrotic Relevance
- 1School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- 2State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences and School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- 3NMPA Key Laboratory of Quality Control of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tibetan Medicine, Xizang Institute for Food and Drug Control, Lhasa 850000, China
Abstract
Ophiocordyceps sinensis (O. sinensis), a precious traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), exhibits remarkable hepatoprotective effects. However, chemical differences between wild-collected and cultivated products remain insufficiently characterized in relation to liver fibrosis. We combined untargeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry with targeted liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to compare wild type (WT) and artificially cultivated (AC) specimens. The two sample groups showed distinct metabolic profiles, and targeted analysis supported differences in selected nucleosides, purine derivatives, pyroglutamic acid, and ergosterol. Adenosine, cordycepin, and ergosterol were more abundant in AC extracts, whereas hypoxanthine, deoxyguanosine, guanosine, and guanine were more abundant in WT extracts. Network pharmacology associated selected source-related metabolites with 158 fibrosis-related candidate targets and prioritized a kinase-centered network involving epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Src (SRC), protein tyrosine kinase 2 (PTK2), HRas proto-oncogene, GTPase (HRAS), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K-Akt), and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. Molecular docking and replicated molecular dynamics simulations indicated structurally plausible interactions for complexes of uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-N-acetylglucosamine) with HRAS and AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT1), and of ergosterol with SRC. These findings reveal source-associated metabolic differences between the analyzed WT and AC samples and provide mechanistic insights into their potentially divergent roles in liver fibrosis regulation, which warrant further experimental validation.
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BibTeX
@article{jin2026metabolomic,
title = {{Metabolomic Differences Between Wild and Cultivated Ophiocordyceps sinensis Identify Source-Associated Metabolites with Predicted Antifibrotic Relevance}},
author = {Meng-Yuan Jin and Jiayi Li and Jun Lan and Bai-La De and Dong-Qing Wei and Li-Da Zhang and Xuan-Wei Zhou},
journal = {International Journal of Molecular Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/ijms27219558},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/21/9558},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Metabolomic Differences Between Wild and Cultivated Ophiocordyceps sinensis Identify Source-Associated Metabolites with Predicted Antifibrotic Relevance
AU - Meng-Yuan Jin
AU - Jiayi Li
AU - Jun Lan
AU - Bai-La De
AU - Dong-Qing Wei
AU - Li-Da Zhang
AU - Xuan-Wei Zhou
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
DO - 10.3390/ijms27219558
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/21/9558
AB - Ophiocordyceps sinensis (O. sinensis), a precious traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), exhibits remarkable hepatoprotective effects. However, chemical differences between wild-collected and cultivated products remain insufficiently characterized in relation to liver fibrosis. We combined untargeted ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry with targeted liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to compare wild type (WT) and artificially cultivated (AC) specimens. The two sample groups showed distinct metabolic profiles, and targeted analysis supported differences in selected nucleosides, purine derivatives, pyroglutamic acid, and ergosterol. Adenosine, cordycepin, and ergosterol were more abundant in AC extracts, whereas hypoxanthine, deoxyguanosine, guanosine, and guanine were more abundant in WT extracts. Network pharmacology associated selected source-related metabolites with 158 fibrosis-related candidate targets and prioritized a kinase-centered network involving epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase Src (SRC), protein tyrosine kinase 2 (PTK2), HRas proto-oncogene, GTPase (HRAS), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K-Akt), and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. Molecular docking and replicated molecular dynamics simulations indicated structurally plausible interactions for complexes of uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-N-acetylglucosamine) with HRAS and AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT1), and of ergosterol with SRC. These findings reveal source-associated metabolic differences between the analyzed WT and AC samples and provide mechanistic insights into their potentially divergent roles in liver fibrosis regulation, which warrant further experimental validation.
SN - 1422-0067
ER -