scholarly journals Analysis of the Molecular Mechanisms of the Effects of Prunella vulgaris against Subacute Thyroiditis Based on Network Pharmacology

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Xin Shen ◽  
Rui Yang ◽  
Jianpeng An ◽  
Xia Zhong

Prunella vulgaris (PV) has a long history of application in traditional Chinese and Western medicine as a remedy for the treatment of subacute thyroiditis (SAT). This study applied network pharmacology to elucidate the mechanism of the effects of PV against SAT. Components of the potential therapeutic targets of PV and SAT-related targets were retrieved from databases. To construct a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, the intersection of SAT-related targets and PV-related targets was input into the STRING platform. Gene ontology (GO) analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were carried out using the DAVID database. Networks were constructed by Cytoscape for visualization. The results showed that a total of 11 compounds were identified according to the pharmacokinetic parameters of ADME. A total of 126 PV-related targets and 2207 SAT-related targets were collected, and 83 overlapping targets were subsequently obtained. The results of the KEGG pathway and compound-target-pathway (C-T-P) network analysis suggested that the anti-SAT effect of PV mainly occurs through quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, and beta-sitosterol and is most closely associated with their regulation of inflammation and apoptosis by targeting the PIK3CG, MAPK1, MAPK14, TNF, and PTGS2 proteins and the PI3K-Akt and TNF signaling pathways. The study demonstrated that quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, and beta-sitosterol in PV may play a major role in the treatment of SAT, which was associated with the regulation of inflammation and apoptosis, by targeting the PI3K-Akt and TNF signaling pathways.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sha Di ◽  
Lin Han ◽  
Qing Wang ◽  
Xinkui Liu ◽  
Yingying Yang ◽  
...  

Shen-Qi-Di-Huang decoction (SQDHD), a well-known herbal formula from China, has been widely used in the treatment of diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the pharmacological mechanisms of SQDHD have not been entirely elucidated. At first, we conducted a comprehensive literature search to identify the active constituents of SQDHD, determined their corresponding targets, and obtained known DN targets from several databases. A protein-protein interaction network was then built to explore the complex relations between SQDHD targets and those known to treat DN. Following the topological feature screening of each node in the network, 400 major targets of SQDHD were obtained. The pathway enrichment analysis results acquired from DAVID showed that the significant bioprocesses and pathways include oxidative stress, response to glucose, regulation of blood pressure, regulation of cell proliferation, cytokine-mediated signaling pathway, and the apoptotic signaling pathway. More interestingly, five key targets of SQDHD, named AKT1, AR, CTNNB1, EGFR, and ESR1, were significant in the regulation of the above bioprocesses and pathways. This study partially verified and predicted the pharmacological and molecular mechanisms of SQDHD on DN from a holistic perspective. This has laid the foundation for further experimental research and has expanded the rational application of SQDHD in clinical practice.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieshu You ◽  
Chen-yue Li ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Xia-lin Wu ◽  
Li-jie Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and objective: As the pathological mechanisms of AD are complex, increasing evidence have demonstrated Chinese Medicine with multi-ingredients and multi-targets may be more suitable for the treatment of diseases with complex pathogenesis. Therefore, the study was to preliminarily decipher the bioactive compounds and potential mechanisms of Qiong Yu Gao (QYG) for AD prevention and treatment by an integrated network pharmacology approach. Methods: Putative ingredients of QYG and significant genes of AD were retrieved from public database after screening. Then QYG ingredients target proteins/genes were obtained by target fishing. Compound-target-disease network was constructed using Cytoscape to decipher the mechanism of QYG for AD. KEGG pathway and GO enrichment analysis were performed to investigate the molecular mechanisms and pathways related to QYG for AD treatments. Results: Finally, 70 compounds and 511 relative drug targets were collected. In which, 17 representative direct targets were found. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that the adenylate cyclase-inhibiting G-protein coupled acetylcholine receptor signaling pathway was the key biological processes and were regulated simultaneously by the 17 direct targets. The KEGG pathway enrichment analysis found that three signaling pathways were closely related to AD prevention and treatment by QYG, including PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, regulation of actin cytoskeleton pathway and insulin resistance pathway. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that QYG exerted the effect of preventing and treating AD by regulating multi-targets with multi-components. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that a network pharmacology-based approach was useful for elucidation of the interrelationship between complex diseases and interventions of Chinese herbal medicines.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieshu You ◽  
Chen-yue Li ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Xia-lin Wu ◽  
Li-jie Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and objective: As the pathological mechanisms of AD is complex, increasing evidence have demonstrated Chinese Medicine with multi-ingredients and multi-targets may be more suitable for the treatment of diseases with complex pathogenesis. Therefore, the study was to preliminarily decipher the bioactive compounds and potential mechanisms of Qiong Yu Gao (QYG) for AD prevention and treatment by an integrated network pharmacology approach. Methods: Putative ingredients of QYG and significant genes of AD were retrieved from public database after screening. Then QYG ingredients target proteins/genes were obtained by target fishing. Compound-target-disease network was constructed using Cytoscape to decipher the mechanism of QYG for AD. KEGG pathway and GO enrichment analysis were performed to investigate the molecular mechanisms and pathways related to QYG for AD treatments. Results: Finally, 70 compounds and 511 relative drug targets were collected. In which, 17 representative direct targets were found. Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that the adenylate cyclase-inhibiting G-protein coupled acetylcholine receptor signaling pathway was the key biological processes and were regulated simultaneously by the 17 direct targets. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis found that three signaling pathways were closely related with AD treatment by QYG, including PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, regulation of actin cytoskeleton pathway and insulin resistance pathway. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that QYG exerted the effect of treating AD by regulating multi-targets with multi-components. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that a network pharmacology-based approach was useful for elucidation of the interrelationship between complex diseases and interventions of Chinese herbal medicines.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manyuan Xu ◽  
Jianxin Shi ◽  
Zhongsheng Min ◽  
Hongliu Zhu ◽  
Weiguo Sun

Background. Kang-bai-ling (KBL), a Chinese patent medicine, has been demonstrated as an effective therapy for vitiligo in China. However, the pharmacological mechanisms of KBL have not been completely elucidated. Methods. In this study, the potential multicomponent, multitarget, and multipathway mechanism of KBL against vitiligo was clarified by using network pharmacology-based strategy. In brief, potential targets of KBL were collected based on TCMSP databases, followed by network establishment concerning the interactions of potential targets of KBL with well-known therapeutic targets of vitiligo by using protein-protein interaction (PPI) data. As a result, key nodes with higher level of seven topological parameters, including “degree centrality (DC),” “betweenness centrality (BC),” “closeness centrality (CC),” “eigenvector centrality (EC),” “network centrality (NC),” and “local average connectivity (LAC)” were identified as the main targets in the network, followed by subsequent incorporation into the ClueGO for GO and KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analysis. Results. In accordance with the topological importance, a total of 23 potential targets of KBL on vitiligo were identified as main hubs. Additionally, enrichment analysis suggested that targets of KBL on vitiligo were mainly clustered into multiple biological processes (associated with DNA translation, lymphocyte differentiation and activation, steroid biosynthesis, autoimmune and systemic inflammatory reaction, neuron apoptosis, and vitamin deficiency) and related pathways (TNF, JAK-STAT, ILs, TLRs, prolactin, and NF-κB), indicating the underlying mechanisms of KBL on vitiligo. Conclusion. In this work, we successfully illuminated the “multicompounds, multitargets” therapeutic action of KBL on vitiligo by using network pharmacology. Moreover, our present outcomes might shed light on the further clinical application of KBL on vitiligo treatment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 411-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xian-Jun Wu ◽  
Xin-Bin Zhou ◽  
Chen Chen ◽  
Wei Mao

Aim and Objective: Cardiovascular disease is a serious threat to human health because of its high mortality and morbidity rates. At present, there is no effective treatment. In Southeast Asia, traditional Chinese medicine is widely used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Quercetin is a flavonoid extract of Ginkgo biloba leaves. Basic experiments and clinical studies have shown that quercetin has a significant effect on the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, its precise mechanism is still unclear. Therefore, it is necessary to exploit the network pharmacological potential effects of quercetin on cardiovascular disease. Materials and Methods: In the present study, a novel network pharmacology strategy based on pharmacokinetic filtering, target fishing, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis, compound-target-pathway network structured was performed to explore the anti- cardiovascular disease mechanism of quercetin. Results:: The outcomes showed that quercetin possesses favorable pharmacokinetic profiles, which have interactions with 47 cardiovascular disease-related targets and 12 KEGG signaling pathways to provide potential synergistic therapeutic effects. Following the construction of Compound-Target-Pathway (C-T-P) network, and the network topological feature calculation, we obtained top 10 core genes in this network which were AKT1, IL1B, TNF, IL6, JUN, CCL2, FOS, VEGFA, CXCL8, and ICAM1. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. These indicated that quercetin produced the therapeutic effects against cardiovascular disease by systemically and holistically regulating many signaling pathways, including Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, TNF signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway.


Author(s):  
Peiliang Wu ◽  
Xiaona Xie ◽  
Mayun Chen ◽  
Junwei Sun ◽  
Luqiong Cai ◽  
...  

Background and Objective: Qishen Yiqi formula (QSYQ) is used to treat cardiovascular disease in the clinical practice of traditional Chinese medicine. However, few studies have explored whether QSYQ affects pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and the mechanisms of action and molecular targets of QSYQ for the treatment of PAH are unclear. A bioinformatics/network topology-based strategy was used to identify the bioactive ingredients, putative targets, and molecular mechanisms of QSYQ in PAH. Methods: A network pharmacology-based strategy was employed by integrating active component gathering, target prediction, PAH gene collection, network topology, and gene enrichment analysis to systematically explore the multicomponent synergistic mechanisms. Results: In total, 107 bioactive ingredients of QSYQ and 228 ingredient targets were identified. Moreover, 234 PAH-related differentially expressed genes with a |fold change| >2 and an adjusted P value < 0.005 were identified between the PAH patient and control groups, and 266 therapeutic targets were identified. The pathway enrichment analysis indicated that 85 pathways, including the PI3K-Akt, MAPK, and HIF-1 signaling pathways, were significantly enriched. TP53 was the core target gene, and 7 other top genes (MAPK1, RELA, NFKB1, CDKN1A, AKT1, MYC, and MDM2) were the key genes in the gene-pathway network based on the effects of QSYQ on PAH. Conclusion: An integrative investigation based on network pharmacology may elucidate the multicomponent synergistic mechanisms of QSYQ in PAH and lay a foundation for further animal experiments, human clinical trials and rational clinical applications of QSYQ.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Shaohua Zhang ◽  
Keke Zhang ◽  
Wenwen He ◽  
Yi Lu ◽  
Xiangjia Zhu

Purpose. To investigate and compare the lens phosphoproteomes in patients with highly myopic cataract (HMC) or age-related cataract (ARC). Methods. In this study, we undertook a comparative phosphoproteome analysis of the lenses from patients with HMC or ARC. Intact lenses from ARC and HMC patients were separated into the cortex and nucleus. After protein digestion, the phosphopeptides were quantitatively analyzed with TiO2 enrichment and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The potential functions of different phosphopeptides were assessed by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Results. In total, 522 phosphorylation sites in 164 phosphoproteins were identified. The number of phosphorylation sites was significantly higher in the cortex than in the nucleus, in both ARC and HMC lenses. The differentially phosphorylated peptides in the lens cortex and nucleus in HMC eyes were significantly involved in the glutathione metabolism pathway. The KEGG pathway enrichment analysis indicated that the differences in phosphosignaling mediators between the ARC and HMC lenses were associated with glycolysis and the level of phosphorylated phosphoglycerate kinase 1 was lower in HMC lenses than in ARC lenses. Conclusions. We provide an overview of the differential phosphoproteomes of HMC and ARC lenses that can be used to clarify the molecular mechanisms underlying their different phenotypes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Sun ◽  
Zining Wang ◽  
Jian Li ◽  
Li Xu ◽  
Xiaoou Xue

Abstract Background: Primary dysmenorrhea(PD)is the most common gynecologic disorder.Despite the prevalence is high, it is often underdiagnosed,undertreated and normalized even by patients themselves. Guizhi Fuling Formula (GFF) is experientially used for the treatment of PD in a long time. Therefore, the efficiency and potential mechanism are waiting to identify.Methods: We adopted network pharmacology integrated molecular docking strategy in this study.Based on published literatures, the relative compounds of GFF were selected preliminarily. Secondly, the putative targets of PD were obtained by wide-searching DisGeNET, OMIM, Drugbank and GeneCards databases.With protein-protein interaction(PPI) analysis, GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and molecular docking ,we systematically evaluated the relationship of herb ingredients and disease targets.Results: The results showed that 30 ingredients of GFF and 43 hub targets made a difference.Under the further analysis,8 targets(EGFR,AKT1,PTGS2,TNF,ESR1,AHR,CTNNB1,CXCL8) were recognized as key therapeutic targets with excellent binding. The enrichment analyses indicated that the GFF had the potential to influence varieties of biological pathways, especially the pathways in cancer and steroid hormone biosynthesis, which play an important part in the pathogenesis of primary dysmenorrhea.Conclusion: GFF influenced primary dysmenorrhea through the synergistic effect of multiple components, multiple targets, and multiple pathways.This study predictedthe potential mechanism, hope that could made contribution for clinical application and scientific research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ho-Sung Lee ◽  
In-Hee Lee ◽  
Kyungrae Kang ◽  
Sang-In Park ◽  
Seung-Joon Moon ◽  
...  

Herbal medicines have drawn considerable attention with regard to their potential applications in breast cancer (BC) treatment, a frequently diagnosed malignant disease, considering their anticancer efficacy with relatively less adverse effects. However, their mechanisms of systemic action have not been understood comprehensively. Based on network pharmacology approaches, we attempted to unveil the mechanisms of FDY003, an herbal drug comprised of Lonicera japonica Thunberg, Artemisia capillaris Thunberg, and Cordyceps militaris, against BC at a systemic level. We found that FDY003 exhibited pharmacological effects on human BC cells. Subsequently, detailed data regarding the biochemical components contained in FDY003 were obtained from comprehensive herbal medicine-related databases, including TCMSP and CancerHSP. By evaluating their pharmacokinetic properties, 18 chemical compounds in FDY003 were shown to be potentially active constituents interacting with 140 BC-associated therapeutic targets to produce the pharmacological activity. Gene ontology enrichment analysis using g:Profiler indicated that the FDY003 targets were involved in the modulation of cellular processes, involving the cell proliferation, cell cycle process, and cell apoptosis. Based on a KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, we further revealed that a variety of oncogenic pathways that play key roles in the pathology of BC were significantly enriched with the therapeutic targets of FDY003; these included PI3K-Akt, MAPK, focal adhesion, FoxO, TNF, and estrogen signaling pathways. Here, we present a network-perspective of the molecular mechanisms via which herbal drugs treat BC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 334-344
Author(s):  
Chunli Piao ◽  
Zheyu Sun ◽  
De Jin ◽  
Han Wang ◽  
Xuemin Wu ◽  
...  

Background: Panax notoginseng, a Chinese herbal medicine, has been widely used to treat vascular diseases. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the complications of diabetic microangiopathy. According to recent studies, the application of Panax notoginseng extract and related Chinese patent medicine preparations can significantly improve DR. However, the pharmacological mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to decipher the potential mechanism of Panax notoginseng treatment of DR using network pharmacology. Methods: We evaluated and screened the active compounds of Panax notoginseng using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database and collected potential targets of the compounds by target fishing. A multi-source database was also used to organize targets of DR. The potential targets as the treatment of DR with Panax notoginseng were then obtained by matching the compound targets with the DR targets. Using protein-protein interaction networks and topological analysis, interactions between potential targets were identified. In addition, we also performed gene ontology-biological process and pathway enrichment analysis for the potential targets by using the Biological Information Annotation Database. Results: Eight active ingredients of Panax notoginseng and 31 potential targets for the treatment of DR were identified. The screening and enrichment analysis revealed that the treatment of DR using Panax notoginseng primarily involved 28 biological processes and 10 related pathways. Further analyses indicated that angiogenesis, inflammatory reactions, and apoptosis may be the main processes involved in the treatment of DR with Panax notoginseng. In addition, we determined that the mechanism of intervention of Panax notoginseng in treating DR may involve five core targets, VEGFA, MMP-9, MMP-2, FGF2, and COX-2. Conclusion: Panax notoginseng may treat diabetic retinopathy through the mechanism of network pharmacological analysis. The underlying molecular mechanisms were closely related to the intervention of angiogenesis, inflammation, and apoptosis with VEGFA, MMP-9, MMP-2, FGF2, and COX-2 being possible targets.


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