Potential mechanism of Linggui Zhugan Decoction for treatment of Alzheimer's disease based on network pharmacology / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the potential mechanism of Linggui Zhugan Decoction in the treatment of Alzheimer' s disease (AD) by using network pharmacological technology. Methods: Firstly, TCMSP, Swiss, SuperPred, Stitch databases and supplement literatures were combined to search for the chemical compounds and the potential targets related to the four herbs in Linggui Zhugan Decoction, using the oral bioavailability (OB) ≥ 30%, drug-like (DL) ≥ 0.18 as screening conditions. Meanwhile, the targets related to AD were screened through OMIM, TTD, GAD and Pharm Gkb databases. Moreover, the interactive targets of Linggui Zhugan Decoction and AD were further acquired. Then, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and KEGG metabolic pathway enrichment analysis of interactive targets were performed using DAVID 6.8 database. Finally, degree and betweenness centrality analysis were performed to find potential key targets and key pathways after the "Herbs-Active Compounds-Targets" interaction network was constructed by Cytoscape software. Results: There were 126 potential active compounds and 120 potential interactive targets in Linggui Zhugan Decoction. A total of 565 enrichment results were obtained by GO analysis, including 396 biological processes, 121 molecular functions and 48 cell components, mainly involving protein binding, cell, oxidation-reduction process, etc. Simultaneously, the selected targets were enriched by KEGG analysis and it indicated that 67 metabolic pathways play an important role in AD, primarily including neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, pathways in cancer, serotonergic synapse and calcium signaling pathway, etc. Conclusion: The synergetic effect of Linggui Zhugan Decoction with multi-compounds, multi-targets and multi-pathways in the treatment of AD were revealed by network pharmacology, which provides a theoretical basis for the study of its pharmacodynamic material basis and action mechanism.