RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Pharmacological studies in modern Chinese medicine have shown that icariin has a very positive effect on osteoarthritis. Because of the complex chemical composition of Epimedium and its unclear mechanism underlying the treatment of osteoarthritis at the molecular level, network pharmacology is introduced to explain the potential chemical components and molecular mechanism of Epimedium in the treatment of osteoarthritis. This can provide a theoretical basis for future drug development and disease treatment. OBJECTIVE: To explore the molecular mechanism of Epimedium in the treatment of osteoarthritis based on network pharmacology. METHODS: TCMSP database was used to screen the active ingredients of Epimedium. TCMSP, Swiss Target Prediction and STITCH database were used to predict the regulatory targets of the active ingredients of Epimedium. OMIM, GeneCards and TTD database were used to predict the therapeutic targets of osteoporosis. The therapeutic target of Epimedium for osteoporosis was obtained by intersecting the therapeutic target of Epimedium and osteoarthritis. A drug-component-target-disease network was then constructed. The protein interaction was analyzed by STRING database, and the related signaling pathways and functions of protein modules were analyzed by DAVID database. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Twenty-three pharmacodynamic components of Epimedium were screened and 230 pharmacodynamic targets of Epimedium and 1 221 therapeutic targets of osteoarthritis were predicted. After crossing, 95 therapeutic targets of Epimedium for osteoporosis were obtained. Protein interaction analysis indicated that JUN, AKT1, RELA, MAPK1, IL6, CXCL8, MAPK8, MAPK14, FOS and IL1B were the core targets of protein interaction network. Key protein modules were mainly involved in interleukin receptor pathway, tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, T cell receptor signaling pathway, nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway and osteoclast differentiation pathway. They might play a role in the treatment of osteoarthritis by regulating many biological processes such as cell proliferation and apoptosis, immune cells and immune response, inflammatory factors and inflammatory response, and lipopolysaccharide cell response.