Network Pharmacology-based Strategy for Predicting Active Ingredients and Potential Targets of Coptis Chinensis Franch in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Abstract

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a disease that causes low fertility in females. Coptis chinensis (CC) has been used to clear away heat and dampness, purify fire, and detoxify in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Although CC has demonstrated efficacy against PCOS in clinical practice, there is no available data regarding the bioactive ingredients, component targets, and confirmed molecular mechanism of this drug combination.Methods: A network pharmacology approach was applied to analyze the bioactive ingredients, component targets, and core signaling pathways of CC. The TCM systems pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP) was used to screen effective active ingredients and targets of CC. The GeneCards, OMIM, and PharmGkb databases was utilized to screen disease targets for PCOS. R language software was used to screen common targets of drugs and diseases. Cytoscape software (version 3.7.1) was utilized to build a drug-active ingredient-disease target interaction network, and the STRING platform was utilized to construct a common target protein-protein interaction network, including 102 nodes and 221 edges. OmicShare tools was used to analysis Gene ontology (GO) biological function analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) path enrichment. Schrodinger software was used to evaluate the interaction between active components and their targets and explore binding modes.Results: 14 effective active ingredients and 218 targets of CC were screened by TCMSP platform. 3517 disease targets for PCOS were obtianed by the disease database and 102 common targets of drugs and diseases were screened through R language software. Key targets of CC for the treatment of PCOS included JUN, MAPK, IL-6, CXCL8, FOS, and IL1B. A total of 123 Gene Ontology (GO) terms and 129 pathways were acquired by analyzing the enrichment of GO and KEGG. It is speculated that the AGEs/RAGE, TNF, IL-17, MAPK and HIF-1 signaling pathways are closely related to PCOS and may be the core pathways involved in PCOS. The molecular docking results showed that quercetin has a higher degree of binding to core targets (eg: IL-6, IL- 1β, MAPK, CXCL8) related to the inflammatory pathway.Conclusions: This preliminary study verified the basic pharmacological effects and mechanisms of CC, a Chinese medicine, in the treatment of PCOS. Particularly, the effect of CC on inflammation and glucose metabolism pathway was noteworthy. This study provides new insights for the systematic exploration of the mechanism of action of Chinese medicine.

Corrigendum to “Network Pharmacology-Based Strategy for Predicting Active Ingredients and Potential Targets of Coptis chinensis Franchin Polycystic Ovary Syndrome”

“…In the article titled “Network Pharmacology-Based Strategy for Predicting Active Ingredients and Potential Targets of Coptis chinensis Franchin Polycystic Ovary Syndrome” [ 1 ], there are errors in the following sections that were introduced during the preparation of the manuscript.…”