Xie LD, Wu JP, Liu SS, Zong Z, Hu Y, Ling N, Han B, Li WL, Yao HY. Investigating the pharmaceutical substances and action mechanisms of Changmaxifeng granules against tic disorders. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(12): 112055 [PMID: 41357924 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i12.112055]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wen-Lan Li, Professor, School of Pharmacy, Harbin University of Commerce, No. 138 Tongda Street, Daoli District, Harbin 150076, Heilongjiang Province, China. lwldzd@163.com
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Pharmacology & Pharmacy
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Basic Study
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Dec 19, 2025 (publication date) through Dec 12, 2025
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World Journal of Psychiatry
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2220-3206
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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Xie LD, Wu JP, Liu SS, Zong Z, Hu Y, Ling N, Han B, Li WL, Yao HY. Investigating the pharmaceutical substances and action mechanisms of Changmaxifeng granules against tic disorders. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(12): 112055 [PMID: 41357924 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i12.112055]
World J Psychiatry. Dec 19, 2025; 15(12): 112055 Published online Dec 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i12.112055
Investigating the pharmaceutical substances and action mechanisms of Changmaxifeng granules against tic disorders
Li-Dong Xie, Jian-Ping Wu, Shu-Sen Liu, Zheng Zong, Yang Hu, Na Ling, Bing Han, Wen-Lan Li, Hong-Yan Yao
Li-Dong Xie, Jian-Ping Wu, Shu-Sen Liu, Zheng Zong, Yang Hu, Wen-Lan Li, School of Pharmacy, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin 150076, Heilongjiang Province, China
Na Ling, Engineering Research Center on Natural Antineoplastic Drugs, Ministry of Education, Harbin 150076, Heilongjiang Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Wen-Lan Li and Hong-Yan Yao.
Author contributions: Li WL and Yao HY contribute equally to this study as co-corresponding authors; Xie LD and Wu JP participated in study design, and data collection and analysis; Xie LD, Liu SS, Zong Z, and Hu Y performed the data analysis; Xie LD Ling N and Han B drafted the manuscript; Li WL and Yao HY revised the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Key Research and Development Plan Project of Heilongjiang Province, No. 2022ZX02C08; Heilongjiang Science and Technology Talent Spring Swallow Support Program Project, No. CYCX24009; and 2025 Graduate Innovation Research Funding Project of Harbin University of Commerce, No. YJSCX2025-833HSD.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All animal experiments conformed to the internationally accepted principles for the care and use of laboratory animals (approval No. HSDYXY-2024055).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report having no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wen-Lan Li, Professor, School of Pharmacy, Harbin University of Commerce, No. 138 Tongda Street, Daoli District, Harbin 150076, Heilongjiang Province, China. lwldzd@163.com
Received: July 17, 2025 Revised: August 11, 2025 Accepted: September 4, 2025 Published online: December 19, 2025 Processing time: 134 Days and 5.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Tic disorders (TDs) are a type of neurological and psychiatric disorder characterized by vocal or motor tics in the head, body, or limbs. Clinical studies have shown that Changmaxifeng granules (CG) can treat TDs. However, the pharmaceutical substances and mechanism of action of CG remain unclear.
AIM
To investigate the pharmaceutical substances and action mechanisms of CG against TDs, this study employs serum medicinal chemistry, network pharmacology, and molecular docking analysis.
METHODS
Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to identify the blood-absorbed constituents of CG; Network pharmacology was then used to integrate these compounds with disease targets, followed by protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks analysis to pinpoint key proteins. Finally, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses combined with molecular docking elucidated the underlying mechanism of action.
RESULTS
Overall, 187 chemical components, including terpenoids, sugars, phenolic acids, and flavonoids, were identified in vitro. In addition, 75 components, namely 49 prototype components and 26 metabolites, were identified in vivo. The PPI results revealed 225 overlapping targets, with TNF, IL-6, FOS, VEGFA, and ESR1 being the major targets. GO and KEGG analyses were performed to identify key signaling pathways and biological processes. Paeonol, evofolin B, aspalathin, and paeoniflorin were identified as potential pharmacodynamic substances based on the results of the “compound-target” network. The maximum binding energy between the core target and the active ingredient was less than -4.7 kcal/mol, indicating that the pharmacophore exhibited a strong affinity toward the core ingredient.
CONCLUSION
This study elucidated the in vitro and in vivo chemical components of CG and outlined their potential targets and action mechanisms. This study provides a basis for further research into the action mechanism and clinical application of CG.
Core Tip: Clinical studies have shown that Changmaxifeng granules (CG) can treat tic disorders. However, the pharmaceutical substances and mechanism of action of CG remain unclear. In this study, we combined serum pharmacochemistry with network pharmacology to identify the chemical constituents of CG that enter the bloodstream and to predict their potential molecular targets, thereby laying the groundwork for elucidating the underlying mechanisms of action.
