陆军军医大学学报 (Jul 2023)
Anti-inflammation of Chinese Dong herb Madeng'ai by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS combined with network pharmacology
Abstract
Objective To explore the potential active components and anti-inflammation mechanism of a Chinese herb from Dong ethnic minority, Madeng'ai (MDA). Methods UPLC-Q-TOF-MS was taken to analyze and identify the major components of MDA. The potential active targets of MDA were retrieved in the Swiss Target Prediction database, and the disease-related targets were searched in the Omim, Disgene and Genecards databases. The common targets of active components and inflammation were obtained for the potential targets of MDA in the treatment against inflammation. The "drug-disease-target" network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were separately constructed by Cytoscape 3.9.1 and String database. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses of the overlapping targets were performed through David database. Finally, RT-qPCR and Western blotting were conducted to determine the mRNA levels of several inflammation-related factors and the possible signaling pathways in RAW264.7 cells after LPS treatment. Results There were 29 compounds identified by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS, and the top 5 were tormentic acid, ellagic acid, procyanidin C1, epicatechin and procyanidin B1. There were 104 core targets of MDA docking inflammation through database retrieval and after duplicate removal, and TNF-α, IL-6, AKT1 and ALB might be the core targets. A total of 761 GO items were enriched, including 600 items concerning biological processes, 52 items on cell components, and 109 items involving molecular functions. KEGG analysis screened out 160 signal pathways, mainly focusing on NF-κB, MAPK, PI3K-AKT and so forth signaling pathways. Compared with the normal control group, the mRNA levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β and CCL2 were increased significantly in the model group (LPS treatment group)(P < 0.05), and the phosphorylation levels of p38, ERK and JNK were obviously up-regulated (P < 0.05). While, MDA treatment notably declined the mRNA levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β and CCL2 (P < 0.05), and down-regulated the phosphorylation levels of p38, ERK and JNK when compared with the model group (P < 0.05). Conclusion Our study forecasts that the water extract of MDA, a Chinese traditional herb from Dong minority, has the potential active ingredients in treatment of inflammation, and shows anti-inflammatory effects through multiple pathways, such as MAPK pathway.
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