ABSTRACT
This study was designed to explore the impact of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction (HLJDT) on macrophage inflammation reaction using the network pharmacology method. Glycolysis, sphingolipid metabolism and glutamine metabolism were also investigated for "multi-component, multi-target and multi-pathway", which supports a foundation for drug innovative research. The TCMSP database was used to screen the active components of HLJDT, the target protein predicted by PharmMapper database and the DAVID database for pathways annotation and analysis. The Cytoscape 3.2.1 software was used to construct the active componenttarget-pathway network map and GENEMANIA database for protein interaction analysis. System Dock Database Site is used in verification of molecular docking. The results showed that 84 active ingredients were screened in HLJDT with a total of 111 target targets. Fourteen pathways are affected according to 13 macrophage-related inflammatory proteins, and 8 pathways including 34 target proteins from glycolysis, sphingolipid metabolism and glutamine metabolism. Inflammation-related proteins and metabolism-related proteins can interact with each other through physical correlation, protein co-expression, etc. Berberine, baicalin and geniposide combined well with 5 important targets. Huanglian Jiedu Decoction may act on the glycolysis and sphingolipid pathways to regulate macrophage inflammatory responses.
ABSTRACT
This study was designed to explore the "multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways" intervention mechanism of Huanglian Jiedu decoction (HLJDD) in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by pharmacological network technology, which may establish a foundation for drug development and innovative research. Seventeen active constituents of HLJDD with anti-AD activities were submitted to PharmMapper and Molecule Annotation System (MAS 3.0) bioinformatics softwares to predict the target proteins and carry out related KEGG pathways annotation respectively. The network of "active compound-target-pathway" was constructed and analyzed using the Cytoscape 3.4.0 software. The results suggest that 47 pathways are affected by the 17 active components through 59 target proteins, in which 4 target proteins are related to AD and 2 pathways related to neuroinflammation, respectively. The effect of HLJDD on AD may be dependent on clearing/reducing β-amyloid protein, inhibiting Tau hyperphosphorylation, anti-inflammation and immunoregulation.