A Network Pharmacology Approach to Investigate the Underlying Mechanisms of Alpinia Katsumadai Hayata on Acne Vulgaris

Abstract

The Alpinia katsumadai Hayata Doukou, DK, is a traditional Chinese medicine that has shown superior anti-inflammatory property, which is widely used in the food and commodity industry. A network pharmacology analysis was performed to identify the potential anti-acne compounds, hub therapeutic targets, and the key pathways via TCMSP, BATMAN, CTD, PDB and PubChem databases. Finally, the “compoundtarget- pathway” network was constructed. The study found total 7 active compounds, including quercetin, (2R)-5,7-dihydroxy-2-phenylchroman-4-one, dehydrodiisoeugenol, (2R)-7-hydroxy-5-methoxy-2- phenylchroman-4-one, Pinocembrin, and 1,7-diphenyl-5-hydroxy-6-hepten-3-one alpinolide peroxide. In addition, 30 therapeutic targets, and 4 hub therapeutic targets of the DK were identified. The biological processes were primarily related to inflammatory response, response to oxidative stress, regulation of insulin secretion, etc. Which was significantly associated with ten pathways including the PI3K-Akt signaling pathways, VEGF signaling pathways, etc. Furtherly, the 4 hub targets AKT1, F2, AR, and PTGS2 with higher connectivity in PPI network were verificated though molecular docking, which once again proved that these targets are potential targets of their corresponding chemical molecules. Therefore, DK might have a synergistic effect on the anti-inflammatory effects via the various active compositions, targets and signaling pathways.