Molecular Mechanism of The Effect of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction On Ulcerative Colitis Based On Network Pharmacology And Molecular Docking

Author(s):  
Jing Yang ◽  
Chao-Tao Tang ◽  
Ruiri Jin ◽  
Bixia Liu ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Huanglian jiedu decoction (HLJDD) is a heat-clearing and detoxifying agent composed of four kinds of Chinese herbal medicine. Previous studies have shown that HLJDD can improve the inflammatory response of ulcerative colitis (UC) and maintain intestinal barrier function. However, its molecular mechanism is not completely clear. In this study, we verified the bioactive components (BCI) and potential targets of HLJDD in the treatment of UC by means of network pharmacology and molecular docking, and constructed the pharmacological network and PPI network. Then the core genes were enriched by GO and KEGG. Finally, the bioactive components were docked with the key targets to verify the binding ability between them. A total of 54 active components related to UC were identified. Ten genes are considered to be very important to PPI network. Functional analysis showed that these target genes were mainly involved in the regulation of cell response to different stimuli, IL-17 signal pathway and TNF signal pathway. The results of molecular docking showed that the active components of HLJDD had good affinity with Hub gene. This study systematically elucidates the "multi-component, multi-target, multi-pathway" mechanism of anti-UC with HLJDD for the first time, suggesting that HLJDD or its active components may be candidate drugs for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ce Zhou ◽  
Hang Zhou ◽  
Furong Zhang ◽  
Liangliang Hao ◽  
Jing Guo

Background. Ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic and nonspecific inflammatory bowel disease, seriously affects the quality of patients’ life. Han Re Bing Yong Fa (treating diseases with both cool- and warm-natured herbs) is a classical therapeutic principle of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is often used to treat chronic diseases, including UC. The Gan Jiang-Huang Qin-Huang Lian-Ren Shen decoction (GJHQHLRSD), a representative of Han Re Bing Yong Fa, is effective in alleviating inflammatory symptoms in UC. However, the pharmacological mechanism underlying its anti-inflammatory effect remains unclear. Methods. A network pharmacology strategy, including the construction and analysis of the drug–disease network, was used to explore the complex mechanism of GJHQHLRSD treatment of UC. In addition, molecular docking technology was used to preliminarily examine the binding ability of the potential active components and core therapeutic targets of GJHQHLRSD. Results. The network pharmacology results revealed 140 targets of GJHQHLRSD which are involved in UC. The PPI network analysis identified seven target genes: BCL2L1, NR3C1, ALOX5, S1PR5, NR1I2, CYP2D6, and LPAR6. The molecular docking results revealed that the following displayed strongest combined effects: EGFR with kaempferol, ERK1 with worenine, STAT3 with Palmidin A, BCL2L1 with diop and VEGFA with ginsenoside Rg3. The KEGG and gene ontology enrichment analyses results indicated that GJHQHLRSD functions by regulating the EGFR signaling pathway in UC treatment. Other effective biological processes involved in UC treatment included cancer-related as well as inflammation and viral infection signaling pathways, such as the “MicroRNAs in cancer,” “TNF signaling pathway,” and “JAK-STAT signaling pathway.” Conclusions. This study reflects the multicomponent, multitarget, and multipathway characteristics of the action mechanism of GJHQHLRSD in treating UC. Furthermore, it helps better understand the TCM therapeutic principle of Han Re Bing Yong Fa and explore novel candidate drug targets for UC treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jia Min Li ◽  
Zhen Ni Mu ◽  
Tian Tian Zhang ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Yan Shang ◽  
...  

Background and Objective. Shennao Fuyuan Tang (SNFYT) is an effective herbal formula for ischemic stroke (IS). It has been in China for more than 20 years, but its effective biologically active components and underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of action of SNFYT for the treatment of IS from both network pharmacology and molecular docking aspects. Methods. Screen the biologically active components and potential targets of SNFYT through Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP), Traditional Chinese Medicines Integrated Database (TCMID), and related literature. In addition, DrugBank, OMIM, DisGeNET, and the Therapeutic Target Database were searched to explore the therapeutic targets of IS. The cross-targets of SNFYT potential targets and IS treatment targets were taken as candidate gene targets, and GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed on the candidate targets. On this basis, the SNFYT-component-target network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were constructed using Cytoscape 3.7.2. Finally, AutoDock was used to verify the molecular docking of core components and core targets. Results. We screened out 95 potentially active components and 143 candidate targets. SNFYT-component-target network, PPI network, and Cytoscape analysis identified four core active ingredients and 14 core targets. GO enrichment analyzed 2333 biological processes, 79 cell components, and 149 molecular functions. There are 170 KEGG-related signal pathways P < 0.05 , including the IL-17 signal pathway, TNF signal pathway, and HIF-1 signal pathway. The molecular docking results of the core components and the core targets showed good binding power. Conclusions. SNFYT may achieve the effect of treating ischemic stroke through its anti-inflammatory effect through a signal pathway with core targets as the core.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Wu ◽  
Xinqiao Liu ◽  
Guiwei Li

AbstractHuangqin decoction (HQD) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine formula for ulcerative colitis. However, the pharmacology and molecular mechanism of HQD on ulcerative colitis is still unclear. Combined microarray analysis, network pharmacology, and molecular docking for revealing the therapeutic targets and molecular mechanism of HQD against ulcerative colitis. TCMSP, DrugBank, Swiss Target Prediction were utilized to search the active components and effective targets of HQD. Ulcerative colitis effective targets were obtained by microarray data from the GEO database (GSE107499). Co-targets between HQD and ulcerative colitis are obtained by Draw Venn Diagram. PPI (Protein–protein interaction) network was constructed by the STRING database. To obtain the core target, topological analysis is exploited by Cytoscape 3.7.2. GO and KEGG enrichment pathway analysis was performed to Metascape platform, and molecular docking through Autodock Vina 1.1.2 finished. 161 active components with 486 effective targets of HQD were screened. 1542 ulcerative colitis effective targets were obtained with |Log2FC|> 1 and adjusted P-value < 0.05. The Venn analysis was contained 79 co-targets. Enrichment analysis showed that HQD played a role in TNF signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, Th17 cell differentiation, etc. IL6, TNF, IL1B, PTGS2, ESR1, and PPARG with the highest degree from PPI network were successfully docked with 19 core components of HQD, respectively. According to ZINC15 database, quercetin (ZINC4175638), baicalein (ZINC3871633), and wogonin (ZINC899093) recognized as key compounds of HQD on ulcerative colitis. PTGS2, ESR1, and PPARG are potential therapeutic targets of HQD. HQD can act on multiple targets through multi-pathway, to carry out its therapeutic role in ulcerative colitis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Bei Yin ◽  
Yi-Ming Bi ◽  
Guan-Jie Fan ◽  
Ya-Qing Xia

Background. Huanglian Jiedu Decoction (HLJDD) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formula comprising four herbal medicines. This decoction has long been used in China for clinically treating T2DM. However, the molecular mechanism of HLJDD treat for T2DM is still not fully known. Hence, this study was designed to reveal the synergistic mechanism of HLJDD formula in the treatment of T2DM by using network pharmacology method and molecular docking. Methods. Retrieving and screening of active components of different herbs in HLJDD and corresponding T2DM-related target genes across multiple databases. Subsequently, STRING and Cytoscape were applied to analysis and construct PPI network. In addition, cluster and topological analysis were employed for the analysis of PPI networks. Then, the GO and KEGG enrichment analysis were performed by using ClueGO tool. Finally, the differentially expressed analysis was used to verify whether the expression of key target genes in T2DM and non-T2DM samples was statistically significant, and the binding capacity between active components and key targets was validated by molecular docking using AutoDock. Results. There are 65 active components involved in 197 T2DM-related targets that are identified in HLJDD formula. What is more, 39 key targets (AKT1, IL-6, FOS, VEGFA, CASP3, etc.) and 3 clusters were obtained after topological and cluster analysis. Further, GO and KEGG analysis showed that HLJDD may play an important role in treating T2DM and its complications by synergistically regulating many biological processes and pathways which participated in signaling transduction, inflammatory response, apoptotic process, and vascular processes. Differentially expressed analysis showed that AKT1, IL-6, and FOS were upregulated in T2DM samples and a significant between sample differential expression. These results were validated by molecular docking, which identified 5 high-affinity active components in HLJDD, including quercetin, wogonin, baicalein, kaempferol, and oroxylin A. Conclusion. Our research firstly revealed the basic pharmacological effects and relevant mechanisms of the HLJDD in the treatment of T2DM and its complications. The prediction results might facilitate the development of HLJDD or its active compounds as alternative therapy for T2DM. However, more pharmacological experiments should be performed for verification.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Cen ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
LeiLei Zhang ◽  
XiaoXiao Xue ◽  
Yan Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundType 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is regarded as Pi Dan disease in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Dahuang Huanglian Xiexin Decoction (DHXD), a classical TCM formula, has been used for treating Pi Dan disease in clinic, its pharmacological mechanism has not been elucidated. MethodsThis study used network pharmacological analysis and molecular docking approach to explore the mechanism of DHXD on T2DM. Firstly, the compounds in DHXD were obtained from TCMSP and TCMID databases, the potential targets were determined based on TCMSP and UniProt databases. Next, Genecards, Digenet and UniProt databases were used to identify the targets of T2DM. Then, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was established with overlapping genes of T2DM and compounds, and the core targets in the network were identified and analyzed. Then, the David database was used for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis. Finally, the target genes were selected and the molecular docking was completed by Autodock software to observe the binding level of active components with target genes.ResultsA total of 397 related components and 128 overlapping genes were identified. After enrichment analysis, it was found that HIF-1, TNF, IL-17 and other signaling pathways, as well as DNA transcription, gene expression, apoptosis and other cellular biological processes had the strongest correlation with the treatment of T2DM by DHXD, and most of them occurred in the extracellular space, plasma membrane and other places, which were related to enzyme binding and protein binding. In addition, 42 core genes of DHXD, such as VEGFA, TP53 and MAPK1, were considered as potential therapeutic targets, indicating the potential mechanism of DHXD on T2DM. Finally, the results of molecular docking showed that HIF-1 pathway had strong correlation with the target genes INSR and GLUT4, quercetin and berberine had the strongest binding power with them respectively.ConclusionThis study summarized the main components of DHXD in the treatment of T2DM, identified the core genes and pathways, and systematically analyzed the interaction of related targets, trying to lay the foundation for clarifying the potential mechanism of DHXD on T2DM, so as to carry out further research in the future.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wuxia Quan ◽  
Yandong Miao

Abstract Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a non-ischaemic cardiac muscle disease with structural and functional myocardial aberration can lead to extensive morbidity and mortality due to complications in particular heart failure and arrhythmia. Two classic Chinese medicine formulas, Shenfu decoction and Linguizhugan decoction, were both shown to exert therapeutic effects on heart disease. Thus, modified Shenfu and Linguizhugan decoction (SFLGZGD) is recommended for treatment DCM. However, its chemical and pharmacological characteristics remain to be elucidated. In the current study, a network pharmacology approach was applied to characterize the action mechanism and target genes of SFLGZGD on DCM.Methods: The gene expression of DCM was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). All compounds were obtained from the correlative databases, and active mixture were selected according to their oral bioavailability (OB) and drug-likeness (DL) index. The potential targets of SFLGZGD were obtained from the traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology (TCMSP) database. The compound-target and target-pathway networks were constructed. The protein-protein interactive (PPI) network generated by R software was visualized by Cytoscape, and the topology scores, functional regions, and gene annotations were analyzed using plugins of Bisogenet and CytoNCA. The potential pathways related to target genes were determined by gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses.Results: A total of 963 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 538 upregulated genes and 425 downregulated, were obtained from GSE19303. A total of 636 ingredients in SFLGZGD were obtained, among which, 93 were chosen as bioactive components. The compound-target network included 10 bioactive components and 18 potential targets and a total of 1939 genes obtained in the PPI network, among them, a total of 16 genes were screened out. Moreover,129 terms on the GO analysis and six pathways obtained. Among these potential targets, EGFR, CDKN1A, MMP1, COL1A1, COL3A1, MMP3, ICAM1, and HSPB1 were identified as relatively high-degree targets.Conclusions: The network pharmacology-based approach in the current study has shown promising potential in identifying major therapeutic targets from TCM formulations. Besides, our study suggested that network pharmacology prediction may provide a useful tool for describing the molecular mechanism of SFLGZGD on DCM.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengke Sheng ◽  
Xing Liu ◽  
Qingsong Qu ◽  
Xiaowen Wu ◽  
Yuyao Liao ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Chronic cough significantly affects human health and quality of life. Studies have shown that Sanao Decoction(SAD)can clinically treat chronic cough. To investigate its mechanisms, we used the method of network pharmacology to conduct research at the molecular level.Methods: The active ingredients and their targets were screened by pharmacokinetics parameters from the traditional Chinese medicine system pharmacology analysis platform (TCMSP). The relevant targets of chronic cough were obtained from two databases: GeneCards and DrugBank. Take the intersection to get potential targets of SAD to treat chronic cough and establish the component-target regulatory network by CytoScape3.7.2 and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network by STRING 1.0. The function of the target gene and related pathways were analyzed by the Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) in the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID). The significant pathways and their relevant targets were obtained and the target-pathway network was established by CytoScape3.7.2. Finally, molecular docking of the core active components and relevant targets was performed.Results: A total of 98 active components, 113 targets were identified. The component-target and target-pathway network of SAD and PPI network were established. Enrichment analysis of DAVID indicated that 2062 terms were in biological processes, 77 in cellular components, 142 in molecular functions and 20 significant pathways. In addition, the molecular docking showed that quercetin and luteolin had a good combination with the corresponding targets.Conclusions: It indicates that the active compounds of SAD, such as quercetin, luteolin, may act on AKT1, MAPK1, RELA, EGFR, BCL2 and regulate PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications and Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis pathway to exert the effects of anti-inflammatory, anti-airway remodeling, anti-oxidant stress and repair airway damage to treat chronic cough.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sizhen Gu ◽  
Yan Xue ◽  
Yang Gao ◽  
Shuyang Shen ◽  
Yuli Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Oral administration of indigo naturalis (IN) can induce remission in ulcerative colitis (UC); however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. The main active components and targets of IN were obtained by searching three traditional Chinese medicine network databases such as TCMSP and five Targets fishing databases such as PharmMapper. UC disease targets were obtained from three disease databases such as DrugBank,combined with four GEO gene chips. IN-UC targets were identified by matching the two. A protein–protein interaction network was constructed, and the core targets were screened according to the topological structure. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis and bioGPS localization were performed,and an Herbs-Components-Targets network, a Compound Targets-Organs location network, and a Core Targets-Signal Pathways network were established. Molecular docking technology was used to verify the main compounds-targets. Ten core active components and 184 compound targets of IN-UC, of which 43 were core targets, were enriched and analyzed by bioGPS, GO, and KEGG. The therapeutic effect of IN on UC may involve activation of systemic immunity, which is involved in the regulation of nuclear transcription, protein phosphorylation, cytokine activity, reactive oxygen metabolism, epithelial cell proliferation, and cell apoptosis through Th17 cell differentiation, the Jak-STAT and IL-17 signaling pathways, toll-like and NOD-like receptors, and other cellular and innate immune signaling pathways. The molecular mechanism underlying the effect of IN on inducing UC remission was predicted using a network pharmacology method, thereby providing a theoretical basis for further study of the effective components and mechanism of IN in the treatment of UC.


Author(s):  
Yu-cheng Liao ◽  
Jing-wen Wang ◽  
Qian Yang ◽  
Wen-jun Wanga ◽  
Chao Zhao ◽  
...  

Background: Frankincense has been used as a traditional medicine in many countries. It is an important herb with multiple targets and therapeutic effects including liver protection. However, its mechanism of action in drug-induced liver injury (DILI) remains unknown. Objective: The purpose of this work was to elucidate the active components, core genes, and molecular mechanism of frankincense in DILI through network pharmacology and molecular docking approaches. Method: The active components of frankincense and its target genes were obtained from the BATMAN-TCM database, and the DILI target genes were obtained from the GeneCards and DrugBank databases. Cytoscape was used to create the compound-shared gene target network. STRING and DAVID software were used to analyze key targets and pathway enrichment. Autodock Vina software was used for molecular docking. Results: Network analysis identified 16 compounds in frankincense and 103 target genes that are highly related to DILI. The core genes in the protein-protein interaction network are INS, IL6, TP53, TNF, SRC, PTGS2, IL1B, CAT, IL10, and IGF1. Furthermore, GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses indicated that the effect of frankincense on DILI is related to positive regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter and inflammatory response. Core pathways such as the HIF-1, TNF, FoxO, PI3K-Akt, and the sphingolipid signaling pathway are closely related to DILI. Conclusion: This study revealed the chemical constituents and pharmacological effects of frankincense and unveiled potential DILI healing targets. This study could provide insights for further development of drugs that specifically target DILI.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document