ABSTRACT
Objective: Osteoporosis has become the biggest cause of non-fatal health issue. Currently, the limitations of traditional anti-osteoporosis drugs such as long-term ill-effects and drug resistance, have raised concerns toward complementary and alternative therapies, particularly herbal medicines and their natural active compounds. Thus, this study aimed to provide an integrative analysis of active chemicals, drug targets and interacting pathways of the herbs for osteoporosis treatment. Methods: Here, we introduced a systematic pharmacology model, combining the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) screening model, drug targeting and network pharmacology, to probe into the therapeutic mechanisms of herbs in osteoporosis. Results: We obtained 86 natural compounds with favorable pharmacokinetic profiles and their 58 targets from seven osteoporosis-related herbs. Network analysis revealed that they probably synergistically work through multiple mechanisms, such as suppressing inflammatory response, maintaining bone metabolism or improving organism immunity, to benefit patients with osteoporosis. Furthermore, experimental results showed that all the five compounds (calycosin, asperosaponin VI, hederagenin, betulinic acid and luteolin) enhanced osteoblast proliferation and differentiation in vitro, which corroborated the validity of this system pharmacology approach. Notably, gentisin and aureusidin among the identified compounds were first predicted to be associated with osteoporosis. Conclusion: Herbs and their natural compounds, being characterized as the classical combination therapies, might be engaged in multiple mechanisms to coordinately improve the osteoporosis symptoms. This work may contribute to offer novel strategies and clues for the therapy and drug discovery of osteoporosis and other complex diseases.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To screen out the HAb18G/CD147 binding peptides and find out an antagonist against hepatoma invasion.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>HAb18G/CD147 was purified by affinity chromatographic method and the antigen binding peptides acquired by bio-panning a phage-displayed 12-peptide library. After obtaining the sequence of the selected phage-displayed peptides, all the 9 peptides were synthesized by solid-phase method and identified by mass spectrograph. The peptides' anti-metastatic function was tested by Boyden Chamber assay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The purified HAb18G/CD147, identified by Western blot (molecular weight about 65 kd) could be used to bio-pan the phage-displayed peptide library. After 3 rounds of bio-panning, 9 positive phage clones were selected and sequenced. The synthesized peptides had uneven inhibitory activities and three of them were able to markedly inhibit the hepatoma cell invasion (P < 0.01). The most effective peptide decreased by 90.1% of hepatoma cells migrating through the Boyden Chamber membrane as compared with the control.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Bio-panning the phage-displayed peptide library can be used successfully to screen out the antigen binding peptides. Hepatoma metastatic potential can be inhibited by peptide antagonist which could be a good foundation of developing peptide therapeutic agent against hepatoma metastasis.</p>