Network pharmacology and molecular docking approach to elucidate the mechanisms of Liuwei Dihuang pill in diabetic osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic osteoporosis (DOP) is one of the chronic complications of diabetes mellitus, but without a standardized treatment plan till now. Liuwei Dihuang pill (LDP) has gradually exerted a remarkable effect on DOP in recent years; its specific mechanism is not clear yet. METHODS: We adopted network pharmacology approaches, including multi-database search, pharmacokinetic screening, network construction analysis, gene ontology enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis and molecular docking to elaborate the active components, signaling pathways and potential mechanisms of LDP in the treatment of DOP. RESULTS: Twenty-seven active ingredients and 55 related disease targets have been found through integrated network pharmacology. Functional enrichment analysis shows that five key active ingredients, including beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, diosgenin, tetrahydroalstonine, and kadsurenone, may give full scope to insulin secretion estrogen-level raising and angiogenesis in biological process through the pivotal targets. In addition, the underlying effect of PI3K/AKT/FOXO and VEGF pathways is also suggested in the treatment. CONCLUSION: Based on systematic network pharmacology methods, we predicted the basic pharmacological effects and potential mechanisms of LDP in the treatment of DOP, revealing that LDP may treat DOP through multiple targets and multiple signaling pathways, which provide evidence for the further study of pharmacological mechanism and broader clinical thinking.

Exploring the Molecular Mechanism of Liuwei Dihuang Pills for Treating Diabetic Nephropathy by Combined Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking.

BACKGROUND: Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a common and serious complication of diabetes, but without a satisfactory treatment strategy till now. Liuwei Dihuang pills (LDP), an effective Chinese medicinal formula, has been used to treat DN for more than 1000 years. However, its underlying mechanism of action is still vague. METHODS: Active compounds and corresponding targets of LDP were predicted from the TCMSP database. DN disease targets were extracted from the OMIM, GeneCards, TTD, DisGeNET, and DrugBank databases. Subsequently, the "herbal-compound-target" network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were constructed and analyzed via the STRING web platform and Cytoscape software. GO functional and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were carried out on the Metascape web platform. Molecular docking utilized AutoDock Vina and PyMOL software. RESULTS: 41 active components and 186 corresponding targets of LDP were screened out. 131 common targets of LDP and DN were acquired. Quercetin, kaempferol, beta-sitosterol, diosgenin, and stigmasterol could be defined as five crucial compounds. JUN, MAPK8, AKT1, EGF, TP53, VEGFA, MMP9, MAPK1, and TNF might be the nine key targets. The enrichment analysis showed that common targets were mainly associated with inflammation reaction, oxidative stress, immune regulation, and cell apoptosis. AGE-RAGE and IL-17 were the suggested two significant signal pathways. Molecular docking revealed that the nine key targets could closely bind to their corresponding active compounds. CONCLUSION: The present study fully reveals the multicompound's and multitarget's characteristics of LDP in DN treatment. Furthermore, this study provides valuable evidence for further scientific research of the pharmacological mechanisms and broader clinical application.

[Characteristics of soil organic carbon mineralization at different temperatures in paddy soils under long-term fertilization].

Dynamics of soil organic carbon mineralization affected by long-term fertilizations and temperature in relation to different soil carbon fractions were investigated in paddy soils. Soil samples were collected from the plough layer of 3 long-term national experimental sites in Xinhua, Ningxiang and Taojiang counties of Hunan Province. Mineralization of soil organic C was estimated by 33-day aerobic incubation at different temperatures of 10, 20 and 30 degrees C. The results showed that the rates of CO2 production were higher during the earlier phase (0-13 d) in all treatments, and then decreased according to a logarithm function. Higher incubation temperature strengthened C mineralization in the different treatments. The quantities of cumulative CO2 production in NPK with manure or straw treatments were greater than in inorganic fertilizers treatments. The Q10 values in the different soil treatments ranged from 1.01-1.53. There were significantly positive correlations between the Q10 values and soil total organic carbon (TOC), easy oxidation organic carbon (EOOC), humic acid carbon (C(HA)), fulvic acid carbon (CFA). The cumulative amount of mineralized C was significantly positively correlated with microbial biomass carbon (MBC) at 10 and 20 degrees C, but not significantly at 30 degrees C. Significant correlations were found between the cumulative amount of mineralized C and different soil carbon fractions and C(HA)/C(FA). The correlations of differ- ent soil carbon fractions with the ratio of cumulative mineralized C to TOC were negatively correlated at 10 degrees C, but not significantly at 20 and 30 degrees C. These results suggested that the application of NPK with manure or straw would be helpful to increase the sequestration of C in paddy soils and reduce its contribution of CO2 release in the atmosphere.