RESUMO
ObjectiveTo analyze the effective components of Periploca forrestii against rheumatoid arthritis（RA）by targeting tumor necrosis factor （TNF）-α based on network pharmacology and experimental verification. MethodThe preliminary research of the research group found that the alcohol extracts of P. forrestii （CDLF and CQAF） had significant anti-RA activities，and 10 monomers with such activities were identified. The anti-RA activities of active monomers，CDLF， and CQAF were compared by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）with interleukin（IL）-6，nitric oxide （NO），IL-1β， and prostaglandin E2（PGE2）as indicators. Network pharmacology was employed to analyze the possible molecular mechanism of P. forrestii against RA. The targeting ability of P. forrestii chemical monomers to TNF-α was verified by TNF-α molecular docking，surface plasmon resonance （SPR）， and TNF-α-induced L929 injury model. ResultELISA showed that the anti-RA activities of CDLF and CQAF were significantly stronger than those of identified 10 active monomers. Network pharmacology analysis showed that the core targets of P. forrestii against RA were signal transducer and activator of transcription protein 3 （STAT3），TNF， and IL-6. Gene Ontology（GO） analysis revealed collagen catabolism，inflammatory response，positive regulation of nuclear factor kappa-B（NF-κB） transcription factor activity，and positive regulation of B cell proliferation. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes （EKGG） pathway enrichment analysis demonstrated TNF signaling pathway，phosphoinositide 3-kinase（PI3K）/protein kinase B（Akt） signaling pathway，NF-κB signaling pathway，Toll-like receptor signaling pathway，mitogen-activated protein kinase（MAPK） signaling pathway， etc. Verification experiments by TNF-α molecular docking，SPR， and TNF-α-induced L929 injury model found that CDLF and CQAF had good binding activities and could manifestly antagonize TNF-α. However， the active components separated and identified from CDLF and CQAF did not show the same anti-TNF-α activity. ConclusionThe CDLF and CQAF of P. forrestii may treat RA by targeting TNF-α. The experiments found that the isolated chemical components had weaker binding activity to TNF-α than CDLF and CQAF. Meanwhile，the research group isolated chemical components with a minimum mass fraction of 0.25 ng·g-1 from P. forrestii， which suggested that the active components generated by binding to TNF-α with anti-RA activities were presumedly trace components .