The TCM Preparation Feilike Mixture for the Treatment of Pneumonia: Network Analysis, Pharmacological Assessment and Silico Simulation

Abstract

The Feilike mixture (FLKM) is a valid prescription that is frequently used to assist in the clinical treatment of pneumonia. However, the mechanisms of its effects remain unclear. First, through literature evaluation, it was preliminarily determined that FLKM improved clinical symptoms, regulated immune inflammation response and ameliorated pulmonary function. Then, via database search and literature mining, 759 targets of the 104 active compounds of FLKM were identified. The component-target (CT) network showed that the key active compositions were resveratrol, stigmasterol, beta-sitosterol, sesamin, and quercetin. 115 targets overlapped with pneumonia-related targets. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network identified TNF, AKT1, IL6, JUN, VEGFA and MAPK3 as hub targets. KEGG analyses found that they were mainly enriched in immune related pathway. Next, in vivo experiment, we observed that FLKM ameliorated pathological injury of lung tissue and reduced neutrophil infiltration in rats with LPS-induced pneumonia. And FLKM decreased the concentration of TNF-α and IL-6 in BALF and downregulated the expression of p38MAPK, AKT and VEGFA in lung tissue. Finally, Molecular docking tests showed tight docking of these predicted targeted proteins with key active compounds. Molecular dynamics simulation was employed to assess stability and flexibility of receptor-ligand. Among them, AKT1- stigmasterol bound more stably, and their binding free energies were −47.91 ± 1.62 kcal/mol. This study revealed core compositions and targets for FLKM treating pneumonia and provided integrated pharmacological evidence to support its clinical efficacy.

The efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic in Henan Province: a retrospective study

“…A randomized controlled trial discovered that HXZQ dropping pills and LHQW granules combined with CWM may have clinical benefits for improving clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients, lowering anti-infective drug utilization, and improving patient prognosis [ 9 ]. FLKM has been shown in animal studies to alleviate pathological lung tissue injury, reduce neutrophil infiltration in rats with LPS-induced pneumonia, and alleviate clinical symptoms and signs in patients with pneumonia [ 10 ]. PDL protects against LPS-induced respiratory inflammation in mice [ 11 ].…”

Discovery of potential quality markers of Fritillariae thunbergii bulbus in pneumonia by combining UPLC-QTOF-MS, network pharmacology, and molecular docking

“…Growing evidence has proven that AKT and IL-6 are important targets for the treatment of pneumonia [ 17 , 18 , 55 ]. It has been reported that lobar pneumonia and bronchial pneumonia patients have elevated IL-6 levels relative to those without pneumonia [ 56 ].…”

“…Network pharmacology is a comprehensive approach that generates information that can be used to identify drugs with pleiotropic mechanisms [ 16 , 17 ]. It is popularly used to screen potential bioactive compounds, discover targets, and explore the mechanisms of TCMs in biomolecular networks [ 18 ]. Molecular docking [ 19 ] and dynamics simulation [ 20 ] are important technical means used to explore potential active candidate compounds in TCM.…”

The Efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Treatment of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Henan Province: A Retrospective Study

“…A randomized controlled trial found that HXZQ dropping pills and LHQW granules combined with CWM may have clinical advantages for improving the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients, reducing the utilization rate of antiinfective drugs, and improving patient prognosis [9]. Studies in animals have shown that FLKM ameliorates pathological injury of lung tissue, reduced neutrophil in ltration in rats with LPS-induced pneumonia, and alleviated clinical symptoms and signs in patients with pneumonia [10]. PDL protects against LPS-induced respiratory in ammation in mice [11].…”