Network Pharmacology‐Based Study on the Mechanism of Pinellia ternata in Asthma Treatment

Abstract

Background. Pinellia ternata (PT), a medicinal plant, has had an extensive application in the treatment of asthma in China, whereas its underlying pharmacological mechanisms remain unclear. Methods. Firstly, a network pharmacology method was adopted to collect activated components of PT from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). Targets of PT were assessed by exploiting the PharmMapper website; asthma-related targets were collected from the OMIM website, and target-target interaction networks were built. Secondly, critical nodes exhibiting high possibility were identified as the hub nodes in the network, which were employed to conduct Gene Ontology (GO) comment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) signaling pathway enrichment analysis. Finally, the tissue expression profiles of key candidate genes were identified by the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and the therapeutic effect of PT was verified by an animal experiment. Results. 57 achievable targets of PT on asthma were confirmed as hub nodes through using the network pharmacology method. As revealed from the KEGG enrichment analysis, the signaling pathways were notably enriched in pathways of the T-cell receptor signaling pathway, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction. The expression profiles of candidate genes including Mmp2, Nr3c1, il-10, il-4, il-13, il-17a, il-2, tlr4, tlr9, ccl2, csf2, and vefgα were identified. Moreover, according to transcriptome RNA sequencing data from lung tissues of allergic mice compared to normal mice, the mRNA level of Mmp2 and il-4 was upregulated ( P < 0.001 ). In animal experiments, PT could alleviate the allergic response of mice by inhibiting the activation of T-helper type 2 (TH2) cells and the expression of Mmp2 and il-4. Conclusions. Our study provides candidate genes that may be either used for future studies related to diagnosis/prognosis or as targets for asthma management. Besides, animal experiments showed that PT could treat asthma by regulating the expression of Mmp2 and il-4.

To Predict Anti-Inflammatory and Immunomodulatory Targets of Guizhi Decoction in Treating Asthma Based on Network Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Validation

“…Jia et al found that curcumol improved pneumonia and airway remodeling in mice with chronic asthma by inhibiting the Wnt/ β -catenin pathway through experimental studies [ 37 ]. Lyu et al found that Pinellia ternata reduced the allergic response to asthma in mice by inhibiting the activation of TH2 cells and the expression of the inflammatory factor IL-4 [ 38 ]. In the inflammatory response, proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1 β , IL-6, and TNF- α , activate the body's immune system and promote the aggregation and activation of inflammatory cells, which plays a crucial role in the process of asthma [ 39 ].…”

“…Regulating the expression of proinflammatory cytokines is one of the main ways in which traditional Chinese medicine works. Inhibition of proinflammatory cytokines overproduction may prevent or inhibit a variety of inflammatory diseases [ 11 , 38 ]. In our research, GZD could significantly reduce the release of IL-1 β , IL-6, and TNF- α in vitro inflammation models.…”

Pinelliae rhizoma alleviated acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide via suppressing endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome

“…Hence, it's not difficult to spot that controlling inflammatory injury would be the crux of ALI therapy. Previous studies found that PR exerts protective effects via attenuating allergic airway inflammation and mucus excessive secretion in asthma murine models and also relieves chronic airway inflammation in rats with COPD ( Lee et al, 2013 ; Lyu et al, 2020 ). Moreover, Tang X et al reported that the combination of PR or its bioactive ingredient (β-sitosterol) with another herb indeed decreased the contents of inflammatory factors and ameliorated lung injury in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-infected rat ( Tang et al, 2018 ).…”

Integrative network pharmacology and molecular docking to reveal the mechanism of Jinqiaomai tablet on asthma

“…The existing treatment of asthma cannot be satis ed by a single-ingredient medicine due to the prevalence of asthma. Drugs that target multiple targets and can remedy the weaknesses of those currently available are urgently needed to treat asthma (7). Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) preparations contain a number of active ingredients that exhibit synergistic effects on multiple targets at the same time(8).…”