scholarly journals Network Pharmacology Approach and Experimental Verification of Huashi Dingtong Decoction Against Knee Osteoarthritis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ge Hai-Ya ◽  
Yan Lai-Jun ◽  
Zhang Yan ◽  
Zhang Ying-Sheng ◽  
Lai Yu-Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The aim of this study is to clarify the ingredients and targets of HSDTT against KOA by network pharmacology,and to verify the mechanism of HSDTT in treatment of KOA in vivo.Methods: Ingredient-target network for HSDTT and KOA was created to identify the potential targets, protein-protein interaction network was used to find the key targets of HSDTT in treatment for KOA, GO enrichment and KEGG pathway was conducted to illuminate the pathway related to KOA treat by HSDTT. Rat model of KOA was established by joint injection in papain.The morphology of cartilage were assessed by H&E. ELISA was used to detect the contents of inflammation cytokines in synovial fluid and synovium. The expression of the pathway protein were assessed by PCR.Results: The results of network pharmacology demonstrate that there are 440 ingredients of HSDTT against knee osteoarthritis by 478 targets.The KEGG enrichment analysis showed that PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway were the key pathways for HSDTT to treat KOA. Morphology of cartilage was improved in the HSDTT group when compared with the model group. Our experiment show that HSDTT can reduced the expressions of p38 and p53 in cartilage, increased the expression of collagenⅡ. The contents of IL-1β and TNF-α in the synovium and COX-2 and PGE-2 in synovial fluid were decreased significantly in the HSDTT group when compared with the model group.Conclusions: Our study indicadites that HSDTT is capable to alleviate inflammation and delay the progression of KOA by p38MAPK signaling pathway.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Zhengquan Huang ◽  
Xiaoqing Shi ◽  
Xiaochen Li ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Peng Wu ◽  
...  

Objective. To explore the molecular mechanism of Simiao powder in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Methods. Based on oral bioavailability and drug-likeness, the main active components of Simiao powder were screened using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). GeneCard, OMIM, DisGeNET, DrugBank, PharmGkb, and the Therapeutic Target Database were used to establish target databases for knee osteoarthritis. Cytoscape software was used to construct a visual interactive network diagram of “active ingredient - action target – disease.” The STRING database was used to construct a protein interaction network and analyze related protein interaction relationships. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and Gene Ontology (GO) biological process enrichment analysis were performed on the core targets. Additionally, Discovery Studio software was used for molecular docking verification of active pharmaceutical ingredients and disease targets. Results. Thirty-seven active components of Simiao powder were screened, including 106 common targets. The results of network analysis showed that the targets were mainly involved in regulating biological processes such as cell metabolism and apoptosis. Simiao powder components were predicted to exert their therapeutic effect on the AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, IL-17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, and HIF-1 signaling pathway. The molecular docking results showed that the active components of Simiao powder had a good match with the targets of IL1B, MMP9, CXCL8, MAPK8, JUN, IL6, MAPK1, EGF, VEGFA, AKT1, and PTGS2. Conclusion. Simiao powder has multisystem, multicomponent, and multitarget characteristics in treating knee osteoarthritis. Its possible mechanism of action includes inhibiting the inflammatory response, regulating immune function, and resisting oxidative stress to control the occurrence and development of the disease. Quercetin, wogonin, kaempferol, beta-sitosterol, and other active ingredients may be the material basis for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Zhong ◽  
Youfa Fang

Abstract BackgroundCassiae Semen (CS) is one of the most well-known herbs used in the treatment of cataracts in China. However, the potential mechanisms of its anti-cataracts effects have not been fully explored.MethodThe active compounds of CS were obtained from TCMSP database, and their targets were retrieved from the TCMSP, STITCH and DrugBank databases. Cataracts related target genes were identified from the GeneCard, Malacard, and OMIM databases. GO and KEGG analysis were performed using DAVID online tools, and Cytoscape were used to construct compound-targets network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, cluster analysis were carried out using MCODE plugin for Cytoscape.ResultsWe obtained 13 active compounds from CS and 105 targets in total to construct a compound-target network, which indicated that emodin, stigmastero, and rhein served as the main ingredients in CS. A total of 238 cataracts related targets were identified from public databases. PPI networks of compound targets and cataract-related targets were constructed and merged to obtained the central network, enrichment analysis showed 50 key targets in the central network enriched in several important signaling pathways, such as thyroid hormone signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. The top 4 genes with higher degree in the central network were TP53, HSP90, ESR1, EGFR, indicating their important roles in the treatment of cataracts.ConclusionsThe present study systematically revealed the multi-target mechanisms of CS on cataracts using network pharmacology approach, and provided indications for further mechanistic studies and also for the development of CS as a potential treatment for cataracts patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiyin Wang ◽  
Jiangtao Lin

Zhichuanling oral liquid (ZOL) as a preparation of traditional Chinese medicine is widely used for the treatment of asthma in China; therefore, it is necessary to systematically clarify bioactive chemical ingredients and the mechanism of action of ZOL. Information on ZOL ingredients and asthma-related targets was collected, and we used the latest systematic pharmacological methods to construct protein-protein interaction network and compound-target network and then visualized them. Finally, GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis was conducted through the clusterProfiler package in the R software. The results showed that 58 bioactive ingredients and 42 potential targets of ZOL related to asthma were identified, following six important components and nine hub genes screened. Further cluster and enrichment analysis suggested that NF-κB signaling pathway, PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway might be core pathways of ZOL for asthma. Our work successfully predicted the active ingredients and potential targets of ZOL and provided the explanation for the mechanism of action of ZOL for asthma through the systematic analysis, which suggested that ZOL played a major role in many ways including reducing airway inflammation and inhibiting airway remodeling and mucus secretion. Moreover, ZOL combined with glucocorticoids may have some effects on severe asthma.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanni Lai ◽  
Qiong Zhang ◽  
Haishan Long ◽  
Tiantian Han ◽  
Geng Li ◽  
...  

Background: Ganghuo Kanggan decoction (GHKGD) is a clinical experience prescription used for the treatment of viral pneumonia in the Lingnan area of China, and its clinical effect is remarkable. However, the mechanism of GHKGD in influenza is still unclear.Objective: To predict the active components and signaling pathway of GHKGD and to explore its therapeutic mechanism in influenza and to verified it in vivo using network pharmacology.Methods: The potential active components and therapeutic targets of GHKGD in the treatment of influenza were hypothesized through a series of network pharmacological strategies, including compound screening, target prediction and pathway enrichment analysis. Based on the target network and enrichment results, a mouse model of influenza A virus (IAV) infection was established to evaluate the therapeutic effect of GHKGD on influenza and to verify the possible molecular mechanism predicted by network pharmacology.Results: A total of 116 candidate active compounds and 17 potential targets were identified. The results of the potential target enrichment analysis suggested GHKGD may involve the RLR signaling pathway to reduce inflammation in the lungs. In vivo experiments showed that GHKGD had a protective effect on pneumonia caused by IAV-infected mice. Compared with the untreated group, the weight loss in the GHKGD group in the BALB/c mice decreased, and the inflammatory pathological changes in lung tissue were reduced (p < 0.05). The expression of NP protein and the virus titers in lung were significantly decreased (p < 0.05). The protein expression of RIG-I, NF-kB, and STAT1 and the level of MAVS and IRF3/7 mRNA were remarkably inhibited in GHKGD group (p < 0.05). After the treatment with GHKGD, the level of Th1 cytokines (IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2) was increased, while the expression of Th2 (IL-5, IL4) cytokines was reduced (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Through a network pharmacology strategy and in vivo experiments, the multi-target and multi-component pharmacological characteristics of GHKGD in the treatment of influenza were revealed, and regulation of the RLR signaling pathway during the anti-influenza process was confirmed. This study provides a theoretical basis for the research and development of new drugs from GHKGD.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Wang ◽  
Zhongxiu Yang ◽  
Canming Chen ◽  
Yang Xu ◽  
Hongguang Wang ◽  
...  

Autism is a common disease that seriously affects the quality of life. The role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in autism remains largely unexplored. We aimed to detect the circRNA expression profile and construct a circRNA-based competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network in autism. Valproate acid was used to establish an in vivo model of autism in mice. A total of 1,059 differentially expressed circRNAs (477 upregulated and 582 downregulated) in autism group was identified by RNA sequencing. The expression of novel_circ_015779 and novel_circ_035247 were detected by real-time PCR. A ceRNA network based on altered circRNAs was established, with 9,715 nodes and 150,408 edges. Module analysis was conducted followed by GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. The top three modules were all correlated with autism-related pathways involving “TGF-beta signaling pathway,” “Notch signaling pathway,” “MAPK signaling pathway,” “long term depression,” “thyroid hormone signaling pathway,” etc. The present study reveals a novel circRNA involved mechanisms in the pathogenesis of autism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ke Chen ◽  
Luojian Zhang ◽  
Zhen Qu ◽  
Feng Wan ◽  
Jia Li ◽  
...  

Weibing Formula 1, a classic traditional formula, has been widely used clinically to treat gastritis in recent years. However, the potential pharmacological mechanism of Weibing Formula 1 is still unclear to date. A network pharmacology-based strategy was performed to uncover the underlying mechanisms of Weibing Formula 1 against gastritis. Furthermore, we structured the drug-active ingredients-genes–disease network and PPI network of shared targets, and function enrichment analysis of these targets was carried out. Ultimately, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets and real-time quantitative PCR were used to verify the related genes. We found 251 potential targets corresponding to 135 bioactive components of Weibing Formula 1. Then, 327 gastritis-related targets were known gastritis-related targets. Among which, 60 common targets were shared between potential targets of Weibing Formula 1 and known gastritis-related targets. The results of pathway enrichment analysis displayed that 60 common targets mostly participated in various pathways related to Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and apoptosis. Based on the GSE60427 dataset, 15 common genes were shared between differentially expressed genes and 60 candidate targets. The verification results of the GSE5081 dataset showed that except for DUOX2 and VCAM1, the other 13 genes were significantly upregulated in gastritis, which was consistent with the results in the GSE60427 dataset. More importantly, real-time quantitative PCR results showed that the expressions of PTGS2, MMP9, CXCL2, and CXCL8 were significantly upregulated and NOS2, EGFR, and IL-10 were downregulated in gastritis patients, while the expressions of PTGS2, MMP9, CXCL2, and CXCL8 were significantly downregulated and NOS2, EGFR, and IL-10 were upregulated after the treatment of Weibing Formula 1. PTGS2, NOS2, EGFR, MMP9, CXCL2, CXCL8, and IL-10 may be the important direct targets of Weibing Formula 1 in gastritis treatment. Our study revealed the mechanism of Weibing Formula 1 in gastritis from an overall and systematic perspective, providing a theoretical basis for further knowing and application of this formula in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 612-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ze-Feng Wang ◽  
Ye-Qing Hu ◽  
Qi-Guo Wu ◽  
Rui Zhang

Background and Objective: A large number of people are facing the danger of fatigue due to the fast-paced lifestyle. Fatigue is common in some diseases, such as cancer. The mechanism of fatigue is not definite. Traditional Chinese medicine is often used for fatigue, but the potential mechanism of Polygonati Rhizoma (PR) is still not clear. This study attempts to explore the potential anti-fatigue mechanism of Polygonati Rhizoma through virtual screening based on network pharmacology. Methods: The candidate compounds of PR and the known targets of fatigue are obtained from multiple professional databases. PharmMapper Server is designed to identify potential targets for the candidate compounds. We developed a Herbal medicine-Compound-Disease-Target network and analyzed the interactions. Protein-protein interaction network is developed through the Cytoscape software and analyzed by topological methods. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment are carried out by DAVID Database. Finally, we develop Compound-Target-Pathway network to illustrate the anti-fatigue mechanism of PR. Results: This approach identified 12 active compounds and 156 candidate targets of PR. The top 10 annotation terms for GO and KEGG were obtained by enrichment analysis with 35 key targets. The interaction between E2F1 and PI3K-AKT plays a vital role in the anti-fatigue effect of PR due to this study. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that PR has multi-component, multi-target and multipathway effects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Zhencheng Xiong ◽  
Can Zheng ◽  
Yanan Chang ◽  
Kuankuan Liu ◽  
Li Shu ◽  
...  

Objective. The purpose of this work is to study the mechanism of action of Duhuo Jisheng Decoction (DHJSD) in the treatment of osteoporosis based on the methods of bioinformatics and network pharmacology. Methods. In this study, the active compounds of each medicinal ingredient of DHJSD and their corresponding targets were obtained from TCMSP database. Osteoporosis was treated as search query in GeneCards, MalaCards, DisGeNET, Therapeutic Target Database (TTD), Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), and OMIM databases to obtain disease-related genes. The overlapping targets of DHJSD and osteoporosis were identified, and then GO and KEGG enrichment analysis were performed. Cytoscape was employed to construct DHJSD-compounds-target genes-osteoporosis network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. CytoHubba was utilized to select the hub genes. The activities of binding of hub genes and key components were confirmed by molecular docking. Results. 174 active compounds and their 205 related potential targets were identified in DHJSD for the treatment of osteoporosis, including 10 hub genes (AKT1, ALB, IL6, MAPK3, VEGFA, JUN, CASP3, EGFR, MYC, and EGF). Pathway enrichment analysis of target proteins indicated that osteoclast differentiation, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, Wnt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway were the specifically major pathways regulated by DHJSD against osteoporosis. Further verification based on molecular docking results showed that the small molecule compounds (Quercetin, Kaempferol, Beta-sitosterol, Beta-carotene, and Formononetin) contained in DHJSD generally have excellent binding affinity to the macromolecular target proteins encoded by the top 10 genes. Conclusion. This study reveals the characteristics of multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway of DHJSD against osteoporosis and provides novel insights for verifying the mechanism of DHJSD in the treatment of osteoporosis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-ying Jia ◽  
Jia Li ◽  
Gui-yun Cao ◽  
Zhao-qing Meng ◽  
Lu Gan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background SheXiang XinTongNing, a commercially available Chinese patent medicine, has been widely used in the treatment of coronary heart disease. However, the mechanisms of SheXiang XinTongNing are still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the pharmacological mechanisms of SheXiang XinTongNing against coronary heart disease via network analysis. Method The traditional Chinese medicine system pharmacology analysis platform was used to screen the potential active constituents of the six traditional Chinese medicines in SheXiang XinTongNing, and the potential targets were obtained from PharmMapper. The genome annotation database platform was used to screen the candidate targets related to coronary heart disease. Then the drug-components-targets network and protein interaction network were built by Cytoscape 3.6.0 software. Further, GO bio-functional enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed through annotation, visualization and integrated discovery database. Results Results showed that the drugs-components-targets network contains 104 targets and 62 key components. The protein interaction network consisted of 107 nodes; key targets included Bcl2l1, IGF1, SRC, CASP3, et al. Functionally, the candidate targets were significantly associated with multiple pathways such as PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, Ras signaling pathway, FoxO signaling pathway, Endocrine resistance. Given the above, the pharmacological activities of SheXiang XinTongNing may be predominantly related to several factors such as cell apoptosis, inflammation and angiogenesis. Conclusion XTN can effectively attenuate the symptoms of coronary heart disease through diverse pathways. The research proves that network pharmacology can successfully reveal the mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine in a holistic view. Our systematic analysis lays a foundation for further studying.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document