Network pharmacology study on the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine for upper respiratory tract infection

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a multi-component and multi-target agent and could treat complex diseases in a holistic way, especially infection diseases. However, the underlying pharmacology remains unclear. Fortunately, network pharmacology by integrating system biology and polypharmacology provides a strategy to address this issue. In this work, Reduning Injection (RDN), a well-used TCM treatment in the clinic for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), was investigated to interpret the molecular mechanism and predict new clinical directions by integrating molecular docking, network analysis and cell-based assays. 32 active ingredients and 38 potential targets were identified. In vitro experiments confirmed the bioactivities of the compounds against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated PGE2 and NO production in RAW264.7 cells. Moreover, network analysis showed that RDN could not only inhibit viral replication but also alleviate the sickness symptoms of URTIs through directly targeting the key proteins in the respiratory viral life cycle and indirectly regulating host immune systems. In addition, other clinical applications of RDN such as neoplasms, cardiovascular diseases and immune system diseases were predicted on the basis of the relationships between targets and diseases.

System-level Study on Synergism and Antagonism of Active Ingredients in Traditional Chinese Medicine by Using Molecular Imprinting Technology

“…Since CA and SCO, IsoB and SCO (each structure was shown in Fig. 2) had the different skeletons, they could interact with different target proteins in the pathway of LPS induced PGE 2 release process, so that to produce synergism3940. But when the concentration reaches a certain level, the inhibition rate will not increase with the increasing of the concentration, so it became antagonism.…”

Insight into the molecular mechanism of a herbal injection by integrating network pharmacology and in vitro

“…The underlying mechanism is normally not clear . It was reported that polyphenol compounds and iridoids were the main components in RDN, including Chlorogenic Acid, Caffeic Acid, Isochlorogenic Acid B, Isochlorogenic Acid A, Isochlorogenic Acid C,Geniposide and so on (Wang et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2014). Recent studies demonstrated that Chlorogenic Acid, Isochlorogenic Acid A, Isochlorogenic Acid B and Isochlorogenic Acid C could attenuate the release of PGE 2 and IL-6 in macrophage Shan et al, 2009).…”

“…A network pharmacology approach was employed to uncover the molecular mechanism of Chinese medical herbs by Zhang et al, 2014. It was revealed that RDN could regulate MAPK pathways via interacting MEK1, JNK, ERK, p38 proteins as well as some key enzymes (COX and iNOS).…”

“…However, along with the development of modern medicine, the scientific basis and action mechanism of herbs have been questioned by medical practitioners recently (Yang et al, 2013). Fortunately, network pharmacology integrating systems biology and polypharmacology is expected to open a way to identify active ingredients and to reveal the action mechanisms of herbs at system-level, which is helpful to illustrating the scientific basis of herbs Lv et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2014).…”

Predicting and verifying outcome of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. based therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: from open to double-blinded randomized trial

“…However, all these biomarkers are targeting to some specific disease, none of them can be used to elucidate the symptom or symptom combination. It has been demonstrated that in the context of TCM theory, network biology based approaches can prioritize disease-associated genes, predict the target profiles and pharmacological actions of herbal compounds, interpret the combinational rules and network regulation effects of herbal formulae545556, thus the biomarkers for our symptomatic indicators might be a network based profile instead of a single molecule. The identification of such a network based profile will rely on a larger scale study, which is now developed underway as further study of this two-staged trial.…”