Study on mechanisms of anti-Alzheimer's disease action of absorbed components of Gardeniae Fructus based on network pharmacology / 中国中药杂志

Gardeniae Fructus has the traditional effects of promoting intelligence and inducing resuscitation, but its mechanism is unclear. In this study, the relationship between Gardeniae Fructus's traditional effect of promoting intelligence and inducing resuscitation and anti-Alzheimer's disease effect was taken as the starting point to investigate the anti-Alzheimer's disease mechanism of the major absorbed components in Gardeniae Fructus by the network pharmacology method. The network pharmacology research model of "absorbed composition-target-pathway-disease" was adopted. In this study, the active components screening and target prediction technology were used to determine the active components and targets of Gardeniae Fructus in treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The enrichment pathway and biological process of Gardeniae Fructus were studied by using the bioinformatics annotation database(DAVID), and the results of molecular docking validation network analysis were used to elaborate the mechanism of Gardeniae Fructus in treatment of Alzheimer's disease. It was found that 35 absorbed components of Gardeniae Fructus not only regulated 48 targets such as cholines-terase(BCHE) and carbonic anhydrase 2(CA2), but also affected 11 biological processes(e.g. transcription factor activity, nuclear receptor activity, steroid hormone receptor activity, amide binding and peptide binding) and 7 metabolic pathways(MAPK signaling pathway, Alzheimer disease and estrogen signaling pathway, etc.). Molecular docking results showed that more than 60% of the active components could be well docked with key targets, and the relevant literature also showed that the active components could inhibit the MAPK1 expression of key targets, indicating a high reliability of results. These results indicated that Gardeniae Fructus may play its anti-Alzheimer's disease action via a "multi-ingredients-multi-targets and multi-pathways" mode, providing a scientific basis for further drug research and development.

Mechanism of loropetalum chinensis in treatment of diabetic skin ulcer / 中草药

Objective To study the molecule mechanism of ethanol extract of Loropetalum chinensis (EELC) in the treatment of diabetic skin ulcer. Methods In vitro epidermal stem cell (ESCs) culture technique and dual luciferase reporter gene detection system were used to study the mechanism of EELC in the treatment of diabetic skin ulcer. Results Totally 232.8 g powder was extracted from 4.5 kg Loropetalum chinensis by 75% ethanol, and the main ingredient was polyphenol. After treating for 48 h with different doses of EELC (50 and 100 μg/mL), the expression of WNT protein, β-catenin protein and C-myc protein was all up-regulated, and was positively correlated with the dose effect (P < 0.01). The target effect of EELC on the Wnt signaling pathway was further identified by the dual luciferase reporter gene assay system. Conclusion The results suggested that EELC could activate canonical Wnt signaling pathway, promote β-catenin protein accumulation in combination with transcription factor in the nucleus to activate the expression of specific target genes, promote ESCs proliferation and differentiation, and repair skin wounds of diabetic ulcers effectively as well.