Network pharmacology-based identification of key pharmacological pathways of Yin–Huang–Qing–Fei capsule acting on chronic bronchitis

Abstract

For decades in China, the Yin–Huang–Qing–Fei capsule (YHQFC) has been widely used in the treatment of chronic bronchitis, with good curative effects. Owing to the complexity of traditional Chinese herbal formulas, the pharmacological mechanism of YHQFC remains unclear. To address this problem, a network pharmacology-based strategy was proposed in this study. At first, the putative target profile of YHQFC was predicted using MedChem Studio, based on structural and functional similarities of all available YHQFC components to the known drugs obtained from the DrugBank database. Then, an interaction network was constructed using links between putative YHQFC targets and known therapeutic targets of chronic bronchitis. Following the calculation of four topological features (degree, betweenness, closeness, and coreness) of each node in the network, 475 major putative targets of YHQFC and their topological importance were identified. In addition, a pathway enrichment analysis based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway database indicated that the major putative targets of YHQFC are significantly associated with various pathways involved in anti-inflammation processes, immune responses, and pathological changes caused by asthma. More interestingly, eight major putative targets of YHQFC (interleukin [IL]-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, FCER1G, CCL11, and EPX) were demonstrated to be associated with the inflammatory process that occurs during the progression of asthma. Finally, a molecular docking simulation was performed and the results exhibited that 17 pairs of chemical components and candidate YHQFC targets involved in asthma pathway had strong binding efficiencies. In conclusion, this network pharmacology-based investigation revealed that YHQFC may attenuate the inflammatory reaction of chronic bronchitis by regulating its candidate targets, which may be implicated in the major pathological processes of the asthma pathway.

An Integrative Serum Pharmacology-Based Approach to Study the Anti-Tumor Activity of B. paniculatum Aqueous Bulb Extract on the Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Line BEL-7404

“…The chemical compounds of TBM were obtained from The Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ETCM) database ( Huang et al., 2015 ; Haiyu et al., 2016 ; Yu et al., 2017 ; Xu et al., 2018 ) ( , updated on 2018). The chemical compounds contained in the TBM aqueous bulb extract were selected by the criteria “Tanimoto scores > 0.8.” This score represents the similarity degree of the certain chemical components to that of known drugs.…”

Comprehensive Network Analysis and Experimental Verification of Dedu Safflower’s Influence on Ascites Hepatocarcinoma

“…Traditional Chinese Medicine Chemistry Database (http://tcm.cmu.edu.tw /, updated on June 28, 2017), used for checking and collecting structure information of the safflower and the Scabiosa tschiliensis [8] .…”

A Network-Based Pharmacology Study of the Herb-Induced Liver Injury Potential of Traditional Hepatoprotective Chinese Herbal Medicines

“…To further explore the relationships between the compounds and targets associated with hepatotoxic effects, the Compound–Target network plotting was generated by Cytoscape 3.4.0 ( ) [ 51 ]. In the graphical network plot, nodes represent the compounds or proteins, and edges encode the compound–target interactions.…”