Background. Diabetic nephropathy (DN), characterized by hyperglycemia, hypertension, proteinuria, and edema, is a unique microvascular complication of diabetes. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Astragalus membranaceus (AM) has been widely used for DN in China while the pharmacological mechanisms are still unclear. This work is aimed at undertaking a network pharmacology analysis to reveal the mechanism of the effects of AM in DN. Materials and Methods. In this study, chemical constituents of AM were obtained via Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database (TCMSP), and the potential targets of AM were identified using the Therapeutic Target Database (TTD). DisGeNET and GeneCards databases were used to collect DN-related target genes. DN-AM common target protein interaction network was established by using the STRING database. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were carried out to further explore the DN mechanism and therapeutic effect of AM. The network diagrams of the active component-action target and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed using Cytoscape software. Results. A total of 16 active ingredients contained and 78 putative identified target genes were screened from AM, of which 42 overlapped with the targets of DN and were considered potential therapeutic targets. The analysis of the network results showed that the AM activity of component quercetin, formononetin, calycosin, 7-O-methylisomucronulatol, and quercetin have a good binding activity with top ten screened targets, such as VEGFA, TNF, IL-6, MAPK, CCL3, NOS3, PTGS2, IL-1β, JUN, and EGFR. GO and KEGG analyses revealed that these targets were associated with inflammatory response, angiogenesis, oxidative stress reaction, rheumatoid arthritis, and other biological process. Conclusions. This study demonstrated the multicomponent, multitarget, and multichannel characteristics of AM, which provided a novel approach for further research of the mechanism of AM in the treatment of DN.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

To explore the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from the perspective of metabolomics, gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF/MS) technology was used to observe changes in the metabolic profiles of urine output from rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA). Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a control group and an experimental group, with eight in each. Rats in the experimental group were induced by intracutaneous innoculation of 0.1 mL Freund's complete adjuvant to right paws. On day 20 after immunization, the metabolic profiles between rat control and experimental groups were compared by combining GC-TOF/MS technology with multivariate statistical approaches, including principal component analysis, partial least squares discriminant analysis and orthogonal projections to latent structures-discriminant analysis. Nine potential biomarkers were identified, including 2,2-dimethylsuccinic acid, tartronic acid, dehydroshikimic acid, hippuric acid, adenine, phenaceturic acid, l-dopa, 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid and melibiose. The findings indicate that the rats with AA are disturbed in metabolism of purine, amino acid, fat and energy. This study also demonstrates that the dysfunction in a range of biosynthetic and catabolic pathways, which leads to increased oxygen free radicals and inflammation, could cause underlying pathogenesis of RA. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.