ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the potential regulatory mechanism of Xuebijing injection in the treatment of COVID-19 by using network pharmacology and molecular docking methods. Methods Corresponding target genes of all the active ingredients of Xuebijing injection were obtained by using the pharmacological database and analysis platform of TCM System (TCMSP). And intersections with the COVID-19 gene-related targets in GeneCards database, OMIM database, PharmGkb database, TTD database and DrugBank database using the R programming language. Thus, the core target of Xubijing injection in COVID-19 treatment was obtained;Cytoscape 3.7.2 software was used to construct TCM - compound - target network;PPI network of intersection target was obtained by STRING;Utilized data packets to perform gene ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis to predict the mechanism of overlapping targets. Finally, molecular docking technology was implemented to dock key active ingredients with PPI core protein. Results GO functional enrichment analysis included 1 818 biological processes (BP), 20 cellular components (CC) and 89 molecular functions (MF). The first 30 KEGG related pathways involved inflammation and immune response, such as rheumatoid arthritis signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, Th17 cell differentiation pathway, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1) signaling pathway, JAK-Stat signaling pathway, inflammatory bowel disease signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway, etc. Quercetin, cryptotanshinone, luteolin, β -carotene can affect IL1B, STAT3, AKT1, VEGFA and other overlapping targets. Meanwhile, quercetin may exert anti-inflammatory, antiviral and immune responses through IL1B binding to treat COVID-19. Conclusion This study reveals that chemical components in Xuebijing injection are involved in multiple biological processes and pathways in COVID-19 treatment through binding to key target proteins. © 2022. China Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved.