Network Pharmacology Dissection of Multi-scale Mechanisms of Action of Tu-Xian Mixture for the Treatment of Diabetic Cognitive Impairment
Abstract Background Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been used in the treatment of diabetic cognitive impairment (DCI), and Tu-Xian mixture is one of the prescriptions. This study used a network pharmacology method to predict the active ingredients, potential targets and pathways of Tu-Xian mixture in the treatment of DCI.Methods The potential active ingredients of Tu-xian mixture were obtained by querying databases such as TCMSP, drug targets were screened through Pharmmapper, ETCM, and UniProt databases, and disease target protein groups were collected using TTD, OMIM, and CTD databases. Therapeutic targets were obtained by comparative analysis. Then use WebGestalt to complete GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway analysis.Results A total of 51 active ingredients and 619 potential targets were obtained, among which there were 33 key targets for diabetes and 18 key targets for cognitive impairment. After GO analysis and KEGG pathway analysis, steroid hormone biosynthesis and γ-aminobutyric acid signaling pathway may be the important metabolic pathways for Tu-Xian mixture to perform therapeutic effects.Conclusions This work promoted the comprehension of Tu-Xian mixture in the treatment of DCI, and further experimental verification of the prediction results was still needed to support its clinical application.