Network pharmacology study of yuebi plus banxia decoction in treating asthma

Abstract

Objective: The objective of the study was to study the potential biological mechanism of Yuebi plus Banxia Decoction (YBD) in the treatment of asthma based on network pharmacology. Materials and Methods: Literature databases were used to collect information on the chemical components and pharmacokinetics of YBD as comprehensively as possible. According to pharmacokinetic information and effective ingredient screening criteria, effective chemical components of YBD were screened, and the target genes corresponding to the effective components were collected by the ligand prediction method. At the same time, literature databases including five disease target gene databases were used to collect asthma disease target genes. Then, the effective component target network of YBD and the asthma disease target network can be constructed using Cytoscape 3.2.1 software. The core targets of YBD for the treatment of asthma were screened according to topological analysis based on degree parameters. Through the analysis of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) signal pathway, the main mechanisms of YBD in treating asthma were found out. Results: A161 active ingredients of YBD and 136 core targets for the treatment of asthma were screened out. The effective signaling pathways of YBD in the treatment of asthma were mainly focused on ErbB, MAPK, Estrogen, PI3K-Akt, Neurotrophin, Hippo, HIF-1, TGF-, FoxO, Wnt, Chemoking, Toll-like receptor, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), GnRH, and Notch. Conclusion: YBD has the characteristics of multiple targets and multiple pathways in the treatment of asthma. Its main biological mechanism is related to ErbB, MAPK, Estrogen, PI3K-Akt, neurotrophin, Hippo, HIF-1, TGF-, FoxO, Wnt, Chemoking, Toll-like receptor, VEGF, GnRH, and Notch.

Keywords

• asthma
• network pharmacology
• signaling pathway
• yuebi plus banxia decoction