Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 16, 2021; 9(26): 7653-7670
Published online Sep 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i26.7653
Mechanism of Jianpi Qingchang Huashi Recipe in treating ulcerative colitis: A study based on network pharmacology and molecular docking
Lie Zheng, Xin-Li Wen, Yan-Cheng Dai
Lie Zheng, Xin-Li Wen, Department of Gastroenterology, Shaanxi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shaanxi Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi’an 730000, Shaanxi Province, China
Yan-Cheng Dai, Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200082, China
Author contributions: Zheng L and Dai YC performed the writing and revising of the manuscript; Zheng L and Wen XL contributed to the design of the work and performed overall supervision; Zheng L wrote and revised the paper.
Supported by Shaanxi Province Natural Science Basic Research Program-General Project, No. 2019JM-580 and No. 2021SF-314; Project of Shaanxi Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 2019-ZZ-JC010; and Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project supported by Hongkou District Health Committee, No. HKZK2020A01.
Institutional review board statement: Since this article is a molecular mechanism study of network pharmacology and does not involve animal experiments and clinical experiments, it does not require the approval of the ethics committee.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yan-Cheng Dai, MD, Director, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 230 Baoding Road, Shanghai 200082, China. daiyancheng2005@sohu.com
Received: December 24, 2020
Peer-review started: December 24, 2020
First decision: May 8, 2021
Revised: May 28, 2021
Accepted: July 7, 2021
Article in press: July 7, 2021
Published online: September 16, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a refractory intestinal disease with alternating onset and remission and a long disease course, which seriously affects the health and quality of life of patients. The goal of treatment is to control clinical symptoms, induce and maintain remission, promote mucosal healing, and reduce recurrence. Clinical trials have shown unsatisfactory clinical response rates. As a supplementary alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine has a rich history and has shown good results in the treatment of UC. Because of the quality of herbal medicine and other factors, the curative effect of traditional Chinese medicine is not stable enough. The mechanism underlying the effect of Jianpi Qingchang Huashi Recipe (JPQCHSR) on inducing UC mucosal healing is not clear.

AIM

To investigate the potential mechanism of JPQCHSR for the treatment of UC based on network pharmacology and molecular docking.

METHODS

Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform was used to extract the active components and action targets of JPQCHSR, and the target names were standardized and corrected through UniProt database. The related targets of UC were obtained through GeneCards database, and the intersection targets of drugs and diseases were screened by jvenn online analysis tool. The visual regulatory network of "Traditional Chinese medicine-active components-target-disease" was constructed using Cytoscape software, the protein interaction network was constructed using STRING database, and enrichment analysis of gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways was conducted through R software. At last, the active components were docked with the core target through SYBYL-X 2.1.1 software.

RESULTS

Through database analysis, a total of 181 active components, 302 targets and 205 therapeutic targets were obtained for JPQCHSR. The key compounds include quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, etc. The core targets involved STAT3, AKT1, TP53, MAPK1, MAPK3, JUN, TNF, etc. A total of 2861 items were obtained by GO enrichment analysis, and 171 items were obtained by KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway enrichment analysis. The results of molecular docking showed that the key active components in JPQCHSR had certain affinity with the core target.

CONCLUSION

The treatment of UC with JPQCHSR is a complex process of multi-component, multi-target and multi-pathway regulation. The mechanism of this Recipe in the treatment of UC can be predicted through network pharmacology and molecular docking, so as to provide theoretical reference for it to better play its therapeutic role.

Keywords: Jianpi Qingchang Huashi Recipe, Ulcerative colitis, Network pharmacology, Molecular docking, Inflammatory disease

Core Tip: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic non-specific inflammatory disease that can cause varying degrees of mucosal inflammation from the rectum to the proximal colon. The mechanism of this Recipe in the treatment of UC can be predicted through network pharmacology and molecular docking, so as to provide theoretical reference for it to better play its therapeutic role.