Background: Paeoniae Radix Alba, the root of the plant Paeonia lactiflora Pall, is a common blood-enriching drug in traditional Chinese medicine. Its effectiveness in the clinical treatment of anaemia is remarkable, but its potential pharmacologic mechanism has not been clarified. Methods: In this study, the potential pharmacologic mechanism of Paeoniae Radix Alba in the treatment of iron-deficiency anaemia was preliminarily elucidated through systematic and comprehensive network pharmacology. Results: Specifically, we obtained 15 candidate active ingredients from among 146 chemical components in Paeoniae Radix Alba. The ingredients were predicted to target 77 genes associated with iron-deficiency anaemia. In-depth analyses of these targets revealed that they were mostly associated with energy metabolism, cell proliferation, and stress responses, suggesting that Paeoniae Radix Alba helps alleviate irondeficiency anaemia by affecting these processes. In addition, we conducted a core target analysis and a cluster analysis of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. The results showed that four pathways, the p53 signalling pathway, the IL-17 signalling pathway, the TNF signalling pathway and the AGE-RAGE signalling pathway in diabetic complications, may be major pathways associated with the ameliorative effects of Paeoniae Radix Alba on iron-deficiency anaemia. Moreover, molecular docking verified the credibility of the network for molecular target prediction. Conclusions: Overall, this study predicted the functional ingredients in Paeoniae Radix Alba and their targets and uncovered the mechanism of action of this drug, providing new insights for advanced research on Paeoniae Radix Alba and other traditional Chinese medicines.

Background and Aim: Platycodon grandiflorum (PG) has been widely used for treating chronic bronchitis (CB). However, the material basis and underlying mechanism of action of PG against CB have not yet been elucidated. Methods: To analyze the ingredients in PG, ultraperformance liquid chromatographyquadrupole-time-of-flight tandem mass (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) technology was performed. Subsequently, using data mining and network pharmacology methodology, combined with Discovery Studio 2016 (DS), Cytoscape v3.7.1, and other software, active ingredients, drug-disease targets, and key pathways of PG in the treatment of CB were evaluated. Finally, the reliability of the core targets was evaluated using molecular docking technology and in vitro studies. Results: A total of 36 compounds were identified in PG. According to the basic properties of the compounds, 10 major active ingredients, including platycodin D, were obtained. Based on the data mining approach, the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database, and the Analysis Platform (TCMSP), GeneCards, and other databases were used to obtain targets related to the active ingredients of PG and CB. Network analysis was performed on 144 overlapping gene symbols, and twenty core targets, including interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which indicated that the potential signaling pathway that was most relevant to the treatment of CB was the IL-17 signaling pathway.

No abstract

Tobacco black shank is a kind of soil-borne disease caused by the Oomycete Phytophthora parasitica. This disease is one of the most destructive diseases to tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) growth worldwide. At present, various measures have been taken to control this disease, but they still have different challenges and limitations. Studies have shown that β-aminobutyric acid (BABA), a nonprotein amino acid, can enhance disease resistance in plants against different varieties of pathogens. However, it is unclear whether BABA can induce plants to resist Phytophthora parasitica infection. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effect and related mechanism of BABA against tobacco black shank. Our results showed that 5 mmol.L-1 BABA had an obvious anti-inducing effect on the pathogenic fungus and could effectively inhibit the formation of dark spots in the stems. The results also showed that a large amount of callose deposition was observed in BABA-treated tobacco. Furthermore, the application of BABA induced the accumulation of H2O2 in tobacco and effectively regulated the homeostasis of reactive oxygen in tobacco plants, reducing the toxicity of H2O2 to plants while activating the defense system. In addition, BABA spray treatment could induce an increase in the concentrations of salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid-isoleucine (JA-Ile) in tobacco, and the gene expression results confirmed that BABA upregulated the expression of SA-related genes (PR1, PR2 and PR5), JA-related genes (PDF1.2) and ET-related genes (EFE26 and ACC oxidase) in tobacco plants. Taken together, BABA could activate tobacco resistance to black shank disease by increasing H2O2 accumulation, callose deposition, plant hormone (SA and JA-Ile) production, and SA-, JA-, and ET- signaling pathways.

Objective: The technology, network pharmacology and molecular docking technology of the ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS) were used to explore the potential molecular mechanism of Platycodon grandiflorum (PG) in the treatment of lung cancer (LC).Methods: UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS technology was used to analyze the ingredients of PG and the potential LC targets were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database, and the Analysis Platform (TCMSP), GeneCards and other databases. The interaction network of the drug-disease targets was constructed with the additional use of STRING 11.0. The pathway enrichment analysis was carried out using Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) in Metascape, and then the “Drug-Ingredients-Targets-Pathways-Disease” (D-I-T-P-D) network was constructed using Cytoscape v3.7.1. Finally, the Discovery Studio 2016 (DS) software was used to evaluate the molecular docking.Results: Forty-seven compounds in PG, including triterpenoid saponins, steroidal saponins and flavonoids, were identified and nine main bioactive components including platycodin D were screened. According to the method of data mining, 545 potential drug targets and 2,664 disease-related targets were collected. The results of topological analysis revealed 20 core targets including caspase 3 (CASP3) and prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) suggesting that the potential signaling pathway potentially involved in the treatment of LC included MAPK signaling pathway and P13K-AKT signaling pathway. The results of molecular docking proved that the bound of the ingredients with potential key targets was excellent.Conclusion: The results in this study provided a novel insight in the exploration of the mechanism of action of PG against LC.