Background
Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) has been widely used as an herbal medicine to normalize and strengthen body functions. Although many researchers have focused on the biological effects of KRG, more studies on the action mechanism of red ginseng are still needed. Previously, we investigated the proteomic changes of the rat spleen while searching for molecular signatures and the action mechanism of KRG. The proteomic analysis revealed that differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were involved in the increased immune response and phagocytosis. The
Conclusion
These results may provide molecular signature candidates to elucidate the mechanisms of the immune response by KRG. Here, we demonstrate a strategy of tissue proteomics for the discovery of the molecular function of KRG.
Methods
Rats were divided into 4 groups: 0 (control group), 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg administration of KRG powder for 6 weeks, respectively. Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation was performed with Q-Exactive LC-MS/MS to compare associated proteins between the groups. The putative DEPs were identified by a current UniProt rat protein database search and by the Gene Ontology annotations.
Results
The DEPs appear to increase the innate and acquired immunity as well as immune cell movement. These results suggest that KRG can stimulate immune responses. This analysis refined our targets of interest to include the potential functions of KRG. Furthermore, we validated the potential molecular targets of the functions, representatively LCN2, CRAMP, and HLA-DQB1, by Western blotting.