Study on action mechanism of Tao-Hong-Si-Wu decoction in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis based on network pharmacology / 中国药理学通报

Aim To explore the possible mechanism of Tao-Hong-Si-Wu decoction in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis using network pharmacology. Methods Based on the previous UPLC-Q-TOF-MS

Multi-compound pharmacokinetic research on Chinese herbal medicines: identifying potentially therapeutic compounds and characterizing their disposition and pharmacokinetics / 药学学报

Chinese traditional medicine has provided, since ancient times, a basis for health care and medicine to the Chinese nation and for China's national stability. Identification of the constituents responsible for therapeutic and undesired effects of Chinese herbal medicines is a type of key research facilitating the modernization of these medicines. For a complex Chinese herbal medicine, multi-compound pharmacokinetic research is a useful approach to identifying its constituents that are bioavailable (in their unchanged and/or metabolized forms) at loci responsible for the medicine's therapeutic action and to characterizing the compounds' disposition and pharmacokinetics related to the action. In addition, such pharmacokinetic research is also useful for identifying herbal compounds associated with the medicine's adverse effects and drug-drug interaction potential. Over the past decade, great advances have been achieved in the theory, methodology, associated techniques, and their application of such multi-compound pharmacokinetic research, which has become an emerging field in pharmacokinetics. In this perspective, we elaborate on the methodology, technical requirements, and key analytical techniques of multi-compound pharmacokinetic research on Chinese herbal medicines, describe research examples regarding investigation of pharmacokinetics and disposition of a class of bioactive herbal constituents (ginsenosides of Panax notoginseng root) and pharmacokinetics-based identification of potential therapeutic compounds from a dosed Chinese herbal medicine (LianhuaQingwen capsule), and discuss follow-up development for the multi-compound pharmacokinetic research.

Network pharmacology study on potential active components in volatile oil of Dictamni Cortex / 中国中药杂志

There are many chemical components in the volatile oil of Dictamni Cortex. The complex network relationship of "component-target-disease" can be revealed by using the network pharmacology method, and the mechanism of the efficacy of Dictamni Cortex can be revealed. In this study, we used Swiss Target Prediction database to predict the target of action, STRING database to build protein interaction network, and Cytoscape software to build "component-target-disease" network. The results showed that the antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiallergic effects of Dictamni Cortex were closely related to the components of thymol methyl ether, elemenol, anethole, and the related targets of each component were cross-linked to play a multi-target pharmacodynamic role. This study laid a foundation for the study of the effective substance basis and quality control evaluation of the Dictamni Cortex, and provided a scientific basis for further revealing its mechanism.

Herb pair Paeoniae Radix Alba-Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma: Mechanism analysis by systemic pharmacology approach / 中草药

Objective To study the functional material basis of herb pair Paeoniae Radix Alba-Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma and analyze their mechanism of action by the systematic pharmacological method based on the platform of traditional Chinese medicine systematic pharmacological analysis (TCMSP) and the big data of traditional Chinese medicine. Methods TCMSP was used to search for the chemical constituents of the two Chinese herbal medicines, “Baishao” and “Gancao”. The molecular descriptors of the components were compared by the two tailed Mann-Whitney U test method, and the oral bioavailability (OB) and drug-likeness (DL) were used as indicators to screen the active components, targets and related diseases of the herb pair. The “component-target-disease” and PPI network models were constructed, and bioprocess and metabolic pathway were analyzed to explore the drug-based material basis and mechanism of action. Results Through the OB and DL parameters screening, 49 active pharmaceutical ingredients, 100 targets and 230 related diseases were obtained. The active ingredients with higher degree were formononetin, naringenin, and vestitol; The higher degree of targets were prostaglandin g/H synthase 2 (PTGS2), estrogen receptor (ESR1), and calmodulin (CALM); The higher-grade related diseases were unspecific cancer, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, unspecified, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, mainly involving 16 categories of diseases such as cancer, nervous system diseases, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases and certain infectious diseases and parasitic diseases. Target proteins are involved in bioprocess including signal transduction, drug response, cell proliferation, RNA polymerase II promoter regulation, positive regulation of ERK1 and ERK2 cascades, regulating metabolic pathways such as PI3K-Akt and 5-hydroxytryptamine synapses. Conclusion This study preliminarily verified the basic pharmacological effects and mechanisms of the Paeoniae Radix Alba-Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma herb pair, and explored new ideas for the study of the herb pair and related traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.