International Journal of COPD (Mar 2024)

Network Pharmacology and Experimental Verification Reveal the Regulatory Mechanism of Chuanbeimu in Treating Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

  • Xian M,
  • Xu J,
  • Zheng Y,
  • Zhang L,
  • Zhao J,
  • Chen J,
  • Li S,
  • Lin L,
  • Zhong Y,
  • Yang Z,
  • Xie T,
  • Huang L,
  • Ding Y

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 19
pp. 799 – 813

Abstract

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Meilan Xian,1,2,* Jiaoyuan Xu,1,3,* Yamei Zheng,4 Lei Zhang,4 Jie Zhao,4 Jie Chen,1 Siguang Li,1 Lingsang Lin,1 Yi Zhong,4 Zehua Yang,4 Tian Xie,4 Linhui Huang,4 Yipeng Ding1,4 1Department of General Practice, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Hainan General Hospital, Haikou, Hainan, 570311, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of General Diseases, Hainan Chengmei Hospital, Haikou, Hainan, 570300, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of General Clinic, Longbo Health Hospital, Lingao County, Hainan, 571800, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, Hainan, 570311, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yipeng Ding; Linhui Huang, Department of General Practice, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Hainan General Hospital, No. 19, Xiuhua Road, Xiuying District, Haikou, Hainan, 570311, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disorder in pulmonology. Chuanbeimu (CBM) is a traditional Chinese medicinal herb for treating COPD and has been widely utilized in clinical practice. However, the mechanism of CBM in the treatment of COPD remains incompletely understood. This study aims to investigate the underlying therapeutic mechanism of CBM for COPD using network pharmacology and experimental approaches.Methods: Active ingredients and their targets were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database. COPD-associated targets were retrieved from the GeneCards database. The common targets for CBM and COPD were identified through Venn diagram analysis. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and disease-herb-ingredient-target networks were constructed. Subsequently, the results of the network pharmacology were validated by molecular docking and in vitro experiments.Results: Seven active ingredients and 32 potential targets for CBM were identified as closely associated with COPD. The results of the disease-herb-ingredient-target network and PPI network showed that peimisine emerged as the core ingredient, and SRC, ADRB2, MMP2, and NOS3 were the potential targets for CBM in treating COPD. Molecular docking analysis confirmed that peimisine exhibited high binding affinity with SRC, ADRB2, MMP2, and NOS3. In vitro experiments demonstrated that peimisine significantly upregulated the expression of ADRB2 and NOS3 and downregulated the expression of SRC and MMP2.Conclusion: These findings indicate that CBM may modulate the expression of SRC, ADRB2, MMP2, and NOS3, thereby exerting a protective effect against COPD.Keywords: chuanbeimu, molecular docking, network pharmacology, experiment verification, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

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