Screening active compounds from Corydalis yanhusuo by combining high expression VEGF receptor HEK293 cell membrane chromatography with HPLC - ESI - IT - TOF - MSn method

Abstract Corydalis Thizoma, or Yuanhu in China, is a common herbal drug used for thousands of years as analgesic in Chinese medicine that has been reported to have potential anti-angiogenic effects. In this study, a VEGFR/cell membrane chromatography (VEGFR/CMC) coupled with HPLC- ESI-IT-TOF-MSn system was developed and successfully applied for identifying active components from YuanHu extract acting on VEGFR. We identified tetrahydropalmatine and corydaline as bioactive components with VEGFR activity, thus confirming their inhibitory activity on VEGFR engineered HEK293 cell growth by MTT assay. The activity of tetrahydropalmatine and corydaline was compared with the positive control sorafenib in a range of concentration from 6.25 to 50.0 μM, showing a dose-dependent inhibitory trend. These results indicate that the VEGFR/CMC coupled with HPLC- ESI-IT-TOF-MSn system can purify and identify specific bioactive components from complex systems, thus representing a promising tool for screening molecules active towards VEGFR from natural herbs.