Project description:BackgroundObesity, a condition associated with the development of widespread cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and other health complications, has emerged as a significant global health issue. Oleanolic acid (OA), a pentacyclic triterpenoid compound that is widely distributed in various natural plants, has demonstrated potential anti-inflammatory and anti-atherosclerotic properties. However, the mechanism by which OA fights obesity has not been well studied.MethodNetwork pharmacology was utilized to search for potential targets and pathways of OA against obesity. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations were utilized to validate the interaction of OA with core targets, and an animal model of obesity induced by high-fat eating was then employed to confirm the most central of these targets.ResultsThe network pharmacology study thoroughly examined 42 important OA targets for the treatment of obesity. The key biological processes (BP), cellular components (CC), and molecular functions (MF) of OA for anti-obesity were identified using GO enrichment analysis, including intracellular receptor signaling, intracellular steroid hormone receptor signaling, chromatin, nucleoplasm, receptor complex, endoplasmic reticulum membrane, and RNA polymerase II transcription Factor Activity. The KEGG/DAVID database enrichment study found that metabolic pathways, PPAR signaling pathways, cancer pathways/PPAR signaling pathways, insulin resistance, and ovarian steroidogenesis all play essential roles in the treatment of obesity and OA. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was used to screen nine main targets: PPARG, PPARA, MAPK3, NR3C1, PTGS2, CYP19A1, CNR1, HSD11B1, and AGTR1. Using molecular docking technology, the possible binding mechanism and degree of binding between OA and each important target were validated, demonstrating that OA has a good binding potential with each target. The molecular dynamics simulation's Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD), and Radius of Gyration (Rg) further demonstrated that OA has strong binding stability with each target. Additional animal studies confirmed the significance of the core target PPARG and the core pathway PPAR signaling pathway in OA anti-obesity.ConclusionOverall, our study utilized a multifaceted approach to investigate the value and mechanisms of OA in treating obesity, thereby providing a novel foundation for the identification and development of natural drug treatments.
Project description:Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) has become one of most frequent bone diseases worldwide with aging population. Lycii Fructus, a common plant fruit with the property of drug homologous food, has long since been used to treat PMOP. The aim of this study is to explore pharmacological mechanisms of Lycii Fructus against PMOP through using network pharmacology approach. The active ingredients of Lycii Fructus were obtained from Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology database. Target fishing was performed on these ingredients in UniProt database for identification of the relative targets. Then, we screened the targets related to PMOP using GeneCards database and DisGeNET database. The overlapping genes between PMOP and Lycii Fructus were obtained to perform protein-protein interaction, gene ontology analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis. A total of 35 active ingredients were identified in Lycii Fructus, and fished 158 related targets. Simultaneously, 292 targets associated with PMOP were obtained from GeneCards database and DisGeNET database. By drawing Venn diagram, 41 overlapping genes were obtained, and were considered as therapeutically relevant. Gene ontology enrichment analysis predicted that anti-inflammation and promotion of angiogenesis might be 2 potential mechanism of Lycii Fructus for PMOP treatment. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis revealed several pathways, such as IL-17 pathway, TNF pathway, MAPK pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and HIF signaling pathway were involved in regulating these 2 biological processes. Through the method of network pharmacology, we systematically investigated the mechanisms of Lycii Fructus against PMOP. The identified multi-targets and multi-pathways provide new insights to further determinate its exact pharmacological mechanisms.
Project description:In the present study, a subject of atopic dermatitis (AD) is exposed progressively to allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma (AS), which is defined as atopic march (AM). However, both the targets and compounds against AM are still largely unknown. Hence, we investigated the overlapping targets related directly to the occurrence and development of AD, AR, and AS through public databases (DisGeNET, and OMIM). The final overlapping targets were considered as key targets of AM, which were visualized by a Venn diagram. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using R package software. We retrieved the association between targets and ligands via scientific journals, and the ligands were filtered by physicochemical properties. Lastly, we performed a molecular docking test (MDT) to identify the significant ligand on each target. A total of 229 overlapping targets were considered as AM causal elements, and 210 out of them were interconnected with each other. We adopted 65 targets representing the top 30% highest in degree centrality among 210 targets. Then, we obtained 20 targets representing the top 30% greatest in betweenness centrality among 65 targets. The network analysis unveiled key targets against AM, and the MDT confirmed the affinity between significant compounds and targets. In this study, we described the significance of the eight uppermost targets (CCL2, CTLA4, CXCL8, ICAM1, IL10, IL17A, IL1B, and IL2) and eight ligands (Bindarit, CTLA-4 inhibitor, Danirixin, A-205804, AX-24 HCl, Y-320, T-5224, and Apilimod) against AM, providing a scientific basis for further experiments.
Project description:ObjectiveThe purpose of this work is to study the mechanism of action of Duhuo Jisheng Decoction (DHJSD) in the treatment of osteoporosis based on the methods of bioinformatics and network pharmacology.MethodsIn this study, the active compounds of each medicinal ingredient of DHJSD and their corresponding targets were obtained from TCMSP database. Osteoporosis was treated as search query in GeneCards, MalaCards, DisGeNET, Therapeutic Target Database (TTD), Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), and OMIM databases to obtain disease-related genes. The overlapping targets of DHJSD and osteoporosis were identified, and then GO and KEGG enrichment analysis were performed. Cytoscape was employed to construct DHJSD-compounds-target genes-osteoporosis network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. CytoHubba was utilized to select the hub genes. The activities of binding of hub genes and key components were confirmed by molecular docking.Results174 active compounds and their 205 related potential targets were identified in DHJSD for the treatment of osteoporosis, including 10 hub genes (AKT1, ALB, IL6, MAPK3, VEGFA, JUN, CASP3, EGFR, MYC, and EGF). Pathway enrichment analysis of target proteins indicated that osteoclast differentiation, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, Wnt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway were the specifically major pathways regulated by DHJSD against osteoporosis. Further verification based on molecular docking results showed that the small molecule compounds (Quercetin, Kaempferol, Beta-sitosterol, Beta-carotene, and Formononetin) contained in DHJSD generally have excellent binding affinity to the macromolecular target proteins encoded by the top 10 genes.ConclusionThis study reveals the characteristics of multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway of DHJSD against osteoporosis and provides novel insights for verifying the mechanism of DHJSD in the treatment of osteoporosis.
Project description:Postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) has became 1 of most prevalent bone disorders with aging population. Liuwei Dihuang (LWDH) Pill, a classical kidney-tonifying prescription, is extensively used to treat PMOP in China. The aim of this study is to explore the pharmacological mechanisms of LWDH Pill against PMOP via network pharmacological strategy. The active ingredients of LWDH Pill were screened out from the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology, Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular mechANism of Traditional Chinese Medicine Databases, and their related target genes were fished in the UniProt database. Simultaneously, the GeneCards and DisGeNET databases were used to identify the target genes of PMOP. Through establishing a protein-protein interaction network, the overlapping genes between LWDH Pill and PMOP were identified to analyze their interactions and the hub target genes. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses were performed to predict the underlying biological processes (BP) and signaling pathways, respectively. A total of 64 active ingredients and 653 related target genes were identified in LWDH Pill, and 292 target genes were closely associated with PMOP. After matching the target genes between LWDH Pill and PMOP, 84 overlapping targets were obtained and considered as therapeutically relevant. Through construction of a protein-protein interaction network, we identified 20 hub target genes including IL6, INS, tumor necrosis factor, AKT1, vascular endothelial growth factor A, IGF1, TP53, IL1B, MMP9, JUN, LEP, CTNNB1, EGF, PTGS2, PPARG, CXCL8, IL10, CCL2, FOS and ESR1. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis suggested that LWDH Pill exerted anti-PMOP effects via regulating multiple BP including cell proliferation and apoptosis, oxidative stress, inflammation and angiogenesis. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis revealed several pathways, such as PI3K-AKT pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, hypoxia-inducible factors-1 pathway, tumor necrosis factor pathway, interleukin-17 (IL-17) pathway and FoxO pathway that might be involved in modulating the above BP. Through network pharmacological approach, we investigated the potential therapeutic mechanism of LWDH Pill against postmenopausal osteoporosis in a systemic perspective. These identified multi-targets and multi-pathways provide promising directions for further revealing more exact mechanisms.
Project description:To investigate the potential of ginsenosides in treating osteoporosis, ginsenoside compound K (GCK) was selected to explore the potential targets and mechanism based on network pharmacology (NP). Based on text mining from public databases, 206 and 6590 targets were obtained for GCK and osteoporosis, respectively, in which 138 targets were identified as co-targets of GCK and osteoporosis using intersection analysis. Five central gene clusters and key genes (STAT3, PIK3R1, VEGFA, JAK2 and MAP2K1) were identified based on Molecular Complex Detection (MCODE) analysis through constructing a protein-protein interaction network using the STRING database. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis implied that phosphatidylinositol-related biological process, molecular modification and function may play an important role for GCK in the treatment of osteoporosis. Function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis suggested that the c-Fms-mediated osteoclast differentiation pathway was one of the most important mechanisms for GCK in treating osteoporosis. Meanwhile, except for being identified as key targets based on cytoHubba analysis using Cytoscape software, MAPK and PI3K-related proteins were enriched in the downstream of the c-Fms-mediated osteoclast differentiation pathway. Molecular docking further confirmed that GCK could interact with the cavity on the surface of a c-Fms protein with the lowest binding energy (-8.27 Kcal/moL), and their complex was stabilized by hydrogen bonds (Thr578 (1.97 Å), Leu588 (2.02 Å, 2.18 Å), Ala590 (2.16 Å, 2.84 Å) and Cys 666 (1.93 Å)), van der Waals and alkyl hydrophobic interactions. Summarily, GCK could interfere with the occurrence and progress of osteoporosis through the c-Fms-mediated MAPK and PI3K signaling axis regulating osteoclast differentiation.
Project description:ObjectiveOsteoporosis (OP) is a disease caused by multiple factors. Studies have pointed out that isopsoralen (IPRN) is one of the most effective drugs for the treatment of OP. Based on network pharmacological and molecular experimental analysis, the molecular mechanism of IPRN in osteoporosis is clarified.MethodsIPRN target genes and OP-related genes were predicted from the databases. Intersections were obtained and visualized. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed on target genes, which was confirmed by experiments internal and external experiments. Molecular docking was used to verify the binding between IPRN and target proteins. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulates the binding affinity of protein targets and active compounds.Results87 IPRN target genes and 242 disease-related targets were predicted. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network identified 18 IPRN target proteins for the treatment of OP. GO analysis indicated that target genes were involved in biological processes. KEGG analysis showed that pathways such as PI3K/AKT/mTOR were associated with OP. Cell experiments (qPCR and WB) found that the expressions of PI3K, AKT, and mTOR in MC3T3-E1 cells at 10 μM, 20 μM, and 50 μM IPRN concentrations, especially at 20 μM IPRN treatment, were higher than those in the control group at 48 h. Animal experiments also showed that compared with the control group, 40 mg/kg/time IPRN could promote the expression of the PI3K gene in chondrocytes of SD rats.ConclusionsThis study predicted the target genes of IPRN in the treatment of OP and preliminarily verified that IPRN plays an anti-OP role through the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, which provides a new drug for the treatment of OP.
Project description:BackgroundXianlinggubao formula (XLGB), a Chinese State Food and Drug Administration-permitted traditional Chinese herbal medicine, has been extensively used to treat osteoporosis. Although XLGB was shown to improve bone mass in ovariectomized rats and clinically alleviate osteoporosis symptoms, its pharmacological mechanisms remain unclear.MethodsIn this study, we used a network pharmacological approach to explore the potential mechanism of XLGB in treating osteoporosis. We obtained XLGB compounds from the TCMSP and TCMID databases and identified potential targets of these compounds through target fishing based on the TCMSP and Swiss Target Prediction databases. Next, we identified the osteoporosis targets by using the CTD, TTD, GeneCards, OMIM and PharmGKB databases. Then, the overlapping genes between the XLGB potential targets and the osteoporosis targets were used to establish a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and to analyze their interactions and identify the major hub genes in this network. Subsequently, the Metascape database was utilized to conduct the enrichment of Gene Ontology biological processes and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways.ResultsThere were 104 active compounds and 295 related targets identified overall. After the Metascape enrichment analysis, we identified the top 25 cellular biological processes and top 15 pathways based on the logP value and found that the XLGB-mediated anti-osteoporosis effect was mainly associated with reactive oxygen species, organonitrogen compound response and cell migration. Furthermore, 36 hub genes of XLGB, such as EGF, EGFR, MTOR, MAPK14 and NFKB1, were considered potential therapeutic targets, suggesting the underlying mechanisms of XLGB acting on osteoporosis.ConclusionWe investigated the possible therapeutic mechanisms of XLGB from a systemic perspective. These key targets and pathways provide promising directions for future research to reveal the exact regulatory mechanisms of XLGB.
Project description:BackgroundBushenhuoxue (BSHX) formula, a ten-compound herbal decoction, is widely used to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) in China. However, the mechanism is not clear yet.MethodsThe underlying biological processes and signaling pathways were predicted by network pharmacology. In vivo experimental study, 24 female C57BL/6 J mice were randomly divided into sham, ovariectomized (OVX) and BSHX formula groups. Mice in the latter two groups were subjected to bilateral ovariectomy, and mice in the BSHX formula group were extra treated by BSHX formula at an oral dosage of 0.2 mL/10 g for 8 weeks. The femur samples were harvested for tissue analyses including μCT assay, histology and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of VEGF signaling.ResultsA total of 218 active ingredients and 274 related targets were identified in BSHX formula. After matching with 292 targets of PMOP, 64 overlapping genes were obtained. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses on these 64 genes revealed that angiogenesis and VEGF signaling were considered as the potential therapeutic mechanism of BSHX formula against PMOP. Animal experiments showed that mice in the BSHX formula-treated group presented increased bone mass, microstructural parameters, blood vessel numbers and an activation of VEGF signaling (VEGF, COX2, eNOS and CD31) compared to the OVX mice.ConclusionThis study revealed that BSHX formula exerts anti-PMOP effects possibly through activating VEGF signaling-mediated angiogenesis.