Network Pharmacological Mechanisms of Weixuening Granules in the Treatment of Immune Thrombocytopenia

doi:10.19803/j.1672-8629.2021.11.11

Abstract

Abstract: Objectiv e To explore the mechanism of Weixuening granules in the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) using network pharmacology. Methods The main active ingredients of Weixuening granules were screened using the pharmacological database and analysis platform (TCMSP) of the Chinese Medicine System. Drugbank database was used for target prediction, while Cytoscape 3.7.1 software was used to build a chemical composition-target network. Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), the Human Gene Database (Gene Cards), and Drugbank were searched for the related target genes of ITP. The targets of active ingredients of drugs were mapped to the ITP targets to obtain the intersection targets, which were the predicted targets for ITP of Weixuening granules. The STRING database was used to construct an intersection target protein interaction network (PPI) online before the CytoHubba and MCODE plug-ins in the Cytoscape 3.7.1 software were used to screen out key target genes. Gene ontology (GO) analysis and enrichment analysis based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were used to analyze intersection targets using DAVID 6.8 and online tools. Results A total of 64 chemical components and 229 potential targets in Weixuening granules, 1 746 related targets in ITP disease, and 120 common targets in Weixuening granules- ITP disease were found. Quercetin, kaempferol, and luteolin regulated most of the targets associated with ITP, involving 47, 60 and 56 targets respectively. GO biological function analysis showed that such biological processes were involved as RNA polymerase II promoter, apoptosis, inflammation, aging, cell proliferation and signal transduction. KEGG pathway enrichment results showed 118 signaling pathways, mainly related to pathways in cancer, hepatitis B, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Conclusion Weixuening granules combat ITP by the complex mechanism of multiple components, multiple targets and multiple pathways. The core targets are TP53, AKT1, VEGFA, CASP3, IL6, JUN, TNF, MAPK1, MYC and STAT3. The regulation mechanism involves regulation of inflammation, immunity and related signal transduction pathways.

Key words: Weixuening granules, immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), network pharmacology, mechanism

CLC Number:

R965

HUANG Wei, LUO Yaqin, WANG Xiao. Network Pharmacological Mechanisms of Weixuening Granules in the Treatment of Immune Thrombocytopenia[J]. Chinese Journal of Pharmacovigilance, 2021, 18(11): 1048-1054.

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