School of Chinese Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, 12 Jichang Road, Guangzhou 510405, China.
Molecules. 2017 Sep 28;22(10):1617. doi: 10.3390/molecules22101617.
(Wuweizi in Chinese), a common traditional Chinese herbal medicine, has been used for centuries to treat chronic liver disease. The therapeutic efficacy of Wuweizi has also been validated in clinical practice. In this study, molecular docking and network analysis were carried out to explore the hepatoprotective mechanism of Wuweizi as an effective therapeutic approach to treat liver disease. Multiple active compounds of Wuweizi were docked with 44 protein targets related with viral hepatitis, fatty liver, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. A compound-target network was constructed through network pharmacology analysis, predicting the relationships of active ingredients to the targets. Our results demonstrated that schisantherin, schisandrin B, schisandrol B, kadsurin, Wuweizisu C, Gomisin A, Gomisin G, and angeloylgomisin may target with 21 intracellular proteins associated with liver diseases, especially with fatty liver disease. The CYP2E1, PPARα, and AMPK genes and their related pathway may play a pivotal role in the hepatoprotective effects of Wuweizi. The network pharmacology strategy used provides a forceful tool for searching the action mechanism of traditional herbal medicines and novel bioactive ingredients.
五味子是一种常见的中草药，已被用于治疗慢性肝病已有数百年的历史。五味子的治疗功效也在临床实践中得到了验证。在这项研究中，通过分子对接和网络分析，探索了五味子作为治疗肝病的有效治疗方法的保肝机制。将五味子的多种活性化合物与 44 种与病毒性肝炎、脂肪肝、肝纤维化、肝硬化和肝癌相关的蛋白靶标进行对接。通过网络药理学分析构建了一个化合物-靶标网络，预测了活性成分与靶标的关系。我们的结果表明，五味子酯甲、五味子乙素、五味子丙素、五味子醇甲、五味子醇乙、五味子甲素和五味子乙素可能与 21 种与肝脏疾病相关的细胞内蛋白相互作用，特别是与脂肪肝疾病相关。CYP2E1、PPARα 和 AMPK 基因及其相关通路可能在五味子的保肝作用中发挥关键作用。所使用的网络药理学策略为寻找传统草药和新型生物活性成分的作用机制提供了有力的工具。
