Exploring the Mechanism of Laminaria for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease based on Network Pharmacology

Abstract

Background：Laminaria japonica has also been reported to have a therapeutic effect on AD, but the mechanism is not entirely clear. To explore the mechanism of Laminaria for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the “active components-targets” network and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were constructed for analyzing targets’ functions and pathways. Methods：The main active components of Laminaria were extracted using the TCMSP database and were predicted and screened by GeneCards. Cytoscape was used to construct the “drug-components-targets-disease” network. STRING and Cytoscape were applied to map the PPI network. The Gene Ontology (GO) terms and KEGG pathways of targets were analyzed by Metascape. Results: Seven active components involving 23 active targets were obtained. The network analysis elucidated that Laminaria was mainly involved in cell process, metabolic process, response to stress and other biological processes. CASP3, PPARG, RELA, CCND1 and CASP9 played a key role in treating AD by regulating two small cell lung cancer and Toxoplasmosis. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that Laminaria could prevent and treat AD with advantages of multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways, which explored a new way for further research on the mechanism of Laminaria in the treatment of AD.

Exploring the mechanism of acupuncture for Parkinson's disease based on network pharmacology techniques

“…In recent years, a large number of studies have been conducted on the mechanism of action of acupuncture in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, and many experimental evidences have shown that acupuncture can affect dopamine neurons, produce anti-excitotoxic effects, improve oxidative stress, regulate immune abnormalities, and modulate mitochondrial dysfunction to alleviate Parkinson's disease symptoms. And in this paper cAMP signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway and dopaminergic synapse is consistent with the literature, suggesting that acupuncture for Parkinson's disease may be effective by activating the cAMP signaling pathway, IL -17 signaling pathway and dopaminergic synapse [21,22]. Further validation through experiments is required for follow-up.…”