Analysis of potential drug effective substance and mechanism of ma-xing-shi-gan decoction in treating COVID-19

ABSTRACT

This study was to combine network pharmacology with molecular docking technology, and the purpose was to explore the potential pharmacodynamic substances of Ma-Xing-Shi-Gan decoction in the treatment of COVID-19 and to predict the mechanism. Firstly, the main active components and targets were screened using TCMSP database, and Cytoscape software was used to construct the "active component-target" network. The Uniprot database and Genecards database were used to obtain the target protein genes and disease targets respectively, and the common targets were uploaded to STRING database to construct the core network of protein interaction to screen out the core targets. GO functional enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway analysis were performed using DAVID database. Finally, molecular docking software was used to dock and screen the key active components and therapeutic targets. The results showed that Ma-Xing-Shi-Gan decoction contained multiple active ingredients acting on multiple targets, and played a role in the treatment of COVID-19 through multiple pathways such as inflammatory pathways, suppression of cytokine storms, and immune regulation.