An Integrated Strategy Based on Metabolomics and Pharmacodynamics to Study the Mechanism of Action of Curcumin on the Animal Model of Dysmenorrhea

ABSTRACT Curcumin is a natural food additive with significant biological activity, which is getting more and more attention in treating dysmenorrhea. But the underlying mechanism of action remains unclear. The objective of this study is to evaluate the therapeutic effect of curcumin on dysmenorrhea rats and reveal the underlying mechanism by metabolomics and pharmacodynamics. The dysmenorrhea rats were constructed by chronic unpredictable stress plus isolation feeding and subcutaneous injection of estradiol benzoate and oxytocin. The results demonstrate that curcumin can inhibit the writhing response, regulate liver function indexes such as ALT and AST to normal levels, significantly reverse the levels of AVP and PEG2, promote the stability of hormone levels in the body, and repair damaged uterine tissue. Moreover, 75 differential metabolites were screened, among which curcumin significantly regulated 19 differential metabolites related to the treatment of dysmenorrhea, involving five metabolic pathways including phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tryptophan biosynthesis, phenylalanine metabolism, etc. Curcumin has a good therapeutic effect on dysmenorrhea, which may be related to its anti‐inflammatory and hepatoprotective effects and regulation of a variety of metabolic pathways, which highlights the broad application prospect of curcumin in the treatment of dysmenorrhea.