Molecular mechanisms of An-Chuan Granule for the treatment of asthma based on a network pharmacology approach and experimental validation

Abstract

An-Chuan Granule (ACG), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula, is an effective treatment for asthma but its pharmacological mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, network pharmacology was applied to explore the potential mechanism of ACG in the treatment of asthma. The tumor necrosis factor (TNF), toll-like receptor (TLR), and Th17 cell differentiation-related, nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor, and NF-kappaB pathways were identified as the most significant signaling pathways involved in the therapeutic effect of ACG on asthma. A mouse asthma model was established using ovalbumin (OVA) to verify the effect of ACG and the underlying mechanism. The results showed that ACG treatment not only attenuated the clinical symptoms, but also reduced inflammatory cell infiltration, mucus secretion and MUC5AC production in lung tissue of asthmatic mice. In addition, ACG treatment notably decreased the inflammatory cell numbers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (including IL-6, IL-17, IL-23, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and TGF-beta) in lung tissue of asthmatic mice. In addition, ACG treatment remarkably down-regulated the expression of TLR4, p-P65, NLRP3, Caspase-1 and adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) in lung tissue. Further, ACG treatment decreased the expression of receptor-related orphan receptor (RORγt) in lung tissue but increased that of Forkhead box (Foxp3). In conclusion, the above results demonstrate that ACG alleviates the severity of asthma in a “multi-compound and multi-target” manner, which provides a basis for better understanding of the application of ACG in the treatment of asthma.

MDSCs Aggravate the Asthmatic Progression in Children and OVA-Allergic Mice by Regulating the Th1/Th2/Th17 Responses

“…is is consistent with the results of Chen et al's study that the mRNA and protein levels of caspase 1 were upregulated in the lungs of asthmatic mice induced by OVA, leading to an inflammatory response [37].…”

“…These results suggested that MDSCs exacerbated pneumonitis, mutagenesis, pulmonary fibrosis, and cell apoptosis in OVA-induced asthmatic mice. This is consistent with the results of Chen et al's study that the mRNA and protein levels of caspase 1 were upregulated in the lungs of asthmatic mice induced by OVA, leading to an inflammatory response [ 37 ].…”

Research hotspot and frontier analysis of traditional Chinese medicine in asthma using bibliometric methods from 1991 to 2021

“…A network pharmacology strategy has been adopted for investigating the mechanism of action underlying the effectiveness of Chinese drugs 68 and TCM formulas. 69 , 70 To some extent, the application of network pharmacology will accelerate the research process of TCM in asthma. In addition, essential oils contained in medicinal plants with proven antiasthmatic properties have the possibility of being used as bronchodilators, mast cell stabilizers, expectorants, and so on.…”

Taurochenodeoxycholic acid inhibits the proliferation and invasion of gastric cancer and induces its apoptosis

“…Through the TCM database (http://www.organchem.csdb.cn/scdb/default.htm) and disease database (https://phgkb.cdc.gov/; Chen et al, 2021; Zuo et al., 2018), we compared the target genes of TCDCA and disease genes of gastric cancer and found 90 TCDCA target genes, 928 disease genes of gastric cancer and 28 overlapping genes. This finding suggests that TCDCA may affect the carcinogenesis of gastric cancer by regulating the function of some genes.…”