Systems pharmacology dissection of action mechanisms of Dipsaci Radix for osteoporosis

Liu

et al. 2021

Phytotherapy Research

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). In China, Yinqiao powder is widely used to prevent and treat COVID‐19 patients with Weifen syndrome. In this study, the screening and verification of active ingredients, target selection and DisGeNET scoring, drug–ingredient–gene network construction, protein–protein interaction network construction, molecular docking and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis, gene ontology (GO) functional analysis, gene tissue analysis, and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were used to explore the active ingredients, targets, and potential mechanisms of Yinqiao powder in the treatment of COVID‐19. We also predicted the therapeutic effect of Yinqiao powder using TCM anti‐COVID‐19 (TCMATCOV). Yinqiao powder has a certain therapeutic effect on COVID‐19, with an intervention score of 20.16. Hesperetin, eriodictyol, luteolin, quercetin, and naringenin were the potentially effective active ingredients against COVID‐19. The hub‐proteins were interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), mitogen‐activated protein kinase 3 (MAPK3), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and tumor protein P53 (TP53). The potential mechanisms of Yinqiao powder in the treatment of COVID‐19 are the TNF signaling pathway, T‐cell receptor signaling pathway, Toll‐like receptor signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway. This study provides a new perspective for discovering potential drugs and mechanisms of COVID‐19.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the treatment of COVID‐19 with Yinqiao powder based on network pharmacology

Lin

Liu

et al. 2021

Phytotherapy Research

“…Of these, lignoceric acid (EXD20, degree = 182) had the highest number of targets, followed by rubiadin-1-methyl ether (EXD181, degree = 158), xuelianlactone (EXD130, degree = 131), arachic acid (EXD3, degree = 126), oleanolic acid (EXD6, degree = 126), luteolin (EXD1, degree = 125), (+)-syringaresinol (EXD10, degree = 124), apigenin (EXD2, degree = 117), and β -sitosterol (EXD8, degree = 114). Most components were related to calcium homeostasis and apoptosis-related OP pathways [ 72 – 77 ]. These data demonstrated the important roles of these components in OP therapy and further confirmed that EXD functioned in a multicomponent manner to treat OP.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Molecular Mechanism of Erxian Decoction in Treating Osteoporosis Based on Formula Optimization Model

Yang

Fan

Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity

et al. 2021

Osteoporosis (OP) is a highly prevalent orthopedic condition in postmenopausal women and the elderly. Currently, OP treatments mainly include bisphosphonates, receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) antibody therapy, selective estrogen receptor modulators, teriparatide (PTH1-34), and menopausal hormone therapy. However, increasing evidence has indicated these treatments may exert serious side effects. In recent years, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has become popular for treating orthopedic disorders. Erxian Decoction (EXD) is widely used for the clinical treatment of OP, but its underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear thanks to its multiple components and multiple target features. In this research, we designed a network pharmacology method, which used a novel node importance calculation model to identify critical response networks (CRNs) and effective proteins. Based on these proteins, a target coverage contribution (TCC) model was designed to infer a core active component group (CACG). This approach decoded the mechanisms underpinning EXD’s role in OP therapy. Our data indicated that the drug response network mediated by the CACG effectively retained information of the component-target (C-T) network of pathogenic genes. Functional pathway enrichment analysis showed that EXD exerted therapeutic effects toward OP by targeting PI3K-Akt signaling (hsa04151), calcium signaling (hsa04020), apoptosis (hsa04210), estrogen signaling (hsa04915), and osteoclast differentiation (hsa04380) via JNK, AKT, and ERK. Our method furnishes a feasible methodological strategy for formula optimization and mechanism analysis and also supplies a reference scheme for the secondary development of the TCM formula.

“…To identify the potential targets of bioactive ingredients in HQ-BS, a systematic drug targeting model (SysDT) based on RF and SVM methods was proposed, as previously described [9]. The gene name of each target was obtained from the UniProt Knowledgebase (http://www.uniprot.org/).…”

Section: Prediction Of Putative Targets Of Hq-bsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Network Pharmacology Approach to Explore the Potential Mechanisms of Huangqin-Baishao Herb Pair in Treatment of Cancer

Liu

2020

Med Sci Monit

Background: The aim of this study was to identify the bioactive ingredients of Huangqin-Baishao herb pair and to reveal its anti-cancer mechanisms through a pharmacology approach. Material/Methods: Detailed information on compounds in the HQ-BS herb pair was obtained from the Traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology (TCMSP) and screened by the criteria of OB ³30% and DL ³0.18. A systematic drug targeting model (SysDT) was used for compound targets prediction, and then the targets were analyzed for Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of HQ-BS targets was constructed, after identifying core networks through Cytoscape plugins. Results: We found 47 bioactive compounds of HQ-BS and 107 human-derived targets. A compound target network and a target signal pathway network were constructed and used for topological analysis. Kaempferol, beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, wogonin, and oroxylin-a were identified as core compounds and pathways in cancer. The calcium signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, chemical carcinogenesis, estrogen signaling pathway, proteoglycans in cancer, HIF-1 signaling pathway, thyroid hormone signaling pathway, VEGF signaling pathway, small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, and T cell receptor signaling pathway were found to be potential signals of HQ-BS in treating cancer. Through PPI network analysis, TNF signaling pathway, tryptophan metabolism, proteoglycans in cancer, cell cycle, and chemical carcinogenesis sub-networks were obtained. Conclusions: HQ-BS contains various bioactive compounds, including flavonoids, phytosterols, and other compounds, and these compounds can inhibit or activate multiple targets and pathways against cancer.