Through network pharmacology and molecular docking to explore the underlying mechanism of Artemisia annua L. treating in abdominal aortic aneurysm

Abstract

Background: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a degenerative disease that causes health problems in humans. However, there are no effective drugs for the treatment of AAA. Artemisia annua L. (A. annua) is a traditional herbal that has been widely used in cardiovascular disease. Based on network pharmacology and molecular docking technology, this study predicted the practical components and potential mechanisms of A. annua inhibiting the occurrence and development of AAA.Methods: The main active ingredients and targets of A. annua were screened through the TCMSP database; the GeneCards, OMIM, PharmGkb, and TTD databases were used to search for the targeted genes of AAA and map them to the targets of the active ingredients to obtain the active ingredient therapy of A. annua. The targets of AAA were to construct a protein interaction network through the STRING platform. R software was used to carry out the enrichment analysis of GO and KEGG for relevant targets, and Cytoscape was used to construct the active ingredient-target network prediction model of A. annua. Finally, AutoDock Vina was used to verify the results of the active ingredients and critical targets.Results: The main active ingredients obtained from A. annua for the treatment of AAA include quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, and artemetin, as well as 117 effective targets, including RELA, MAPK14, CCND1, MAPK1, AKT1, MYC, MAPK8, TP53, ESR1, FOS, and JUN. The 11 targeted genes might play a key role in disease treatment. Enriched in 2115 GO biological processes, 159 molecular functions, 56 cellular components, and 156 KEGG pathways, inferred that its mechanism of action might be related to PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, fluid shear stress, atherosclerosis, and AGE-RAGE signaling pathway. Molecular docking results showed that the top five active components of A. annua had a good affinity for core disease targets and played a central role in treating AAA. The low binding energy molecular docking results provided valuable information for the development of drugs to treat AAA.Conclusion: Therefore, A. annua may have multiple components, multiple targets, and multiple signaling pathways to play a role in treating AAA. A. annua may have the potential to treat AAA.

Identifying the Main Components and Mechanisms of Action of Artemisia annua L. in the Treatment of Endometrial Cancer Using Network Pharmacology

“…Through these methods, the underlying mechanism of A. annua in the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm was found. 25 In addition, a large number of articles on network pharmacology have been published, which are devoted to elaborating the mechanism of action of TCM. In China, A. annua has been used as herb for treating various diseases for thousands of years.…”

“… 44 Additionally, some studies have shown that kaempferol induces G2/M phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, inhibits cell invasion, and upregulates the m-TOR/PI3K signaling pathway, thus contributing to the suppression of endometrial cancer. 45 Furthermore, luteolin, 25 isorhamnetin, 46 artemetin, 25 and stigmasterol 47 have been found to inhibit the proliferation of endometrial cancer cells. Subsequently, we performed molecular docking of PTGS2 with quercetin, kaempferol, luteolin, isorhamnetin, artemetin, and stigmasterol and found that all of these components exhibited strong binding activity with PTGS2, with an affinity value smaller than −7.0 kcal/mol.…”

“…On the TCMSP platform, we entered “Qinghao” and filtered the identified components of A. annua based on criteria such as drug-likeness (DL) ≥ 0.18 and oral bioavailability (OB) ≥ 30% . Then, we constructed the protein targets corresponding to the active components and used the UniProt database to obtain the standardized gene symbols …”

“…Cell viability was assessed through the cultivation of cells within 96-well plates. Subsequent to cellular adhesion, varying concentrations of quercetin (10,25,50, and 100 μm) were introduced, accompanied by the establishment of a negative control group. The cells were then cultured within a 5% CO 2 incubation chamber at a temperature of 37 °C.…”