Metabonomic analysis of quercetin against the toxicity of chronic exposure to a mixture of four organophosphate pesticides in rat plasma

1.A metabonomics approach was performed to investigate the effect of quercetin on the toxicity of chronic exposure to a mixture of four organophosphate pesticides (OPs) at their corresponding no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL). The rats were divided into six groups (n=10/group): control, two different doses of quercetin, OPs mixture and different doses of quercetin plus OPs mixture-treated groups.2.Nine metabolites, including two quercetin metabolites and seven endogenous metabolites were identified in plasma. The intensities of metabolites significantly changed in the OP mixture-treated group compared with the control group (p<0.01), such as lysoPE (16:0/0:0), lysoPC (17:0/0:0), lysoPC (15:0/0:0) and 4-pyridoxic acid, significantly increased; by contrast, the intensities of arachidonic acid and citric acid significantly decreased. Anomalous intensity changes in aforementioned metabolites were alleviated in the OP mixture plus 50mg/kgcbw/d quercetin-treated group compared with the OP mixture-treated group (p<0.05).3.The results indicated that quercetin elicited partial protective effects against the toxicity induced by a mixture of OPs, which include regulation of lipid metabolism, improvement of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle disorders, enhancement of antioxidant defence system to protect the liver.