Homogenization of Key Components Screening of "Different Diseases and Different Prescriptions" in Network Pharmacology / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Network pharmacology （NP） is a novel interdisciplinary subject based on the combination of systems biology， multi-omics theory， computer synthesize， network database， and so on. It is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） for active component screening， compatibility rule， pharmacological mechanism， and toxicity-efficacy network. Domestic NP-related papers began to boost from 2017， but some research showed abnormal "homogenization" in the screening of key components. Due to the non-standard and unreasonable situation in early NP analysis， the screening results always contained the same and widely-existed 200-500 Chinese medicine substances as the key components for TCM compounds， regardless of the various “disease-treatment-medicine” approaches to the study. If the "homogenization" phenomenon cannot be promptly clarified and corrected， it will lead to the misunderstanding that the components such quercetin， kaempferol， and sitosterol are "guaranteed to cure all diseases"， which overestimates the pharmacological weights of the components in each disease. This phenomenon seriously interferes the selection and quality control of Q-Markers related to TCM compounds. It violates and negates the scientific connotation of "treating the same disease with different therapies" and "treating different diseases with the same therapy" guided by the holistic view and the theory of syndrome differentiation and treatment. In the long term， the "homogenization" phenomenon may even hinder the healthy development of NP in TCM. Based on TCM theory and modern medicine， this paper started with the "thomogenization" of component screening in NP， and analyzed from the three module of "tphenomenon consequences"， "tcause exploration"， and "tsolving strategies"， thus providing important references for NP research methods.