Molecular mechanism of eucommia ulmoides active ingredients treating synovitis of knee osteoarthritis: An analysis based on network pharmacology / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that the active ingredients of Eucommia ulmoides can inhibit the growth of synovial fibroblasts of arthritis, but the molecular mechanism underlying Eucommia ulmoides treating synovial inflammation of knee osteoarthritis is not yet clear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the possible molecular mechanism of Eucommia ulmoides ingredients treating synovitis of knee osteoarthritis based on the network pharmacology and bioinformatics. METHODS: The active ingredients and targets of Eucommia ulmoides were screened by using the TCM systematic pharmacological analysis platform (TCMSP). The disease targets corresponding to synovitis of knee osteoarthritis were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The protein-protein interaction network was constructed by STRING online database, analyzed and showed by the Cytoscape software. Gene ontology analysis and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway enrichment analysis of the targets were conducted by R/Bioconductor. The enrichment results were obtained with a significant difference (P < 0.05). RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 21 active ingredients of Eucommia ulmoides, including eugenol, eucommia glycoside, eucommia liposide A, quercetin, and 25 different expressed genes (7 up-regulated and 18 down-regulated differentially expressed genes) were obtained. The main biological processes of the differentially expressed genes were found different significantly in cytokine activity, cytokine receptor binding and activating transcription factor binding. The hub genes, such as interleukin-6, vascular endothelial growth factor A and chemotactic factor 8, may be regulated by the active ingredients to influence the signal of MAPK/NF-kappa B/Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Based on the network pharmacology and bioinformatics approach, the study preliminarily validates the molecular mechanism of Eucommia ulmoides for treatment of synovitis of knee osteoarthritis, which may lay a foundation for further pharmacodynamics study and experiment.