School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, The University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518057, China.
Molecules. 2018 Feb 7;23(2):352. doi: 10.3390/molecules23020352.
Various Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) have shown beneficial liver protection effects. Jian-Gan-Bao (JGB), a functional herbal formula, consists of three famous CHMs, including , and , which has been used as a folk medicine for several chronic liver diseases. In the present study, we aim systemically to evaluate the effects of JGB on acute and chronic alcoholic liver diseases (ALD) as well as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in mouse models, and identify its potential bioactive components and mechanism of action. JGB showed preventive effects for acute and chronic ALD as well as NAFLD, while post-treatment of JGB showed no significant effect, suggesting the nature of JGB as a health supplement rather than a drug. Furthermore, a compound-target network was constructed to identify the potential bioactive compounds and pathways that regulate its hepatoprotective effects. There are 40 bioactive compounds and 15 related targets that have been identified via this network pharmacology study. Among them are miltirone, neocryptotanshinone II and deoxyshikonin, with desirable pharmaceutical properties. Pathways relating to inflammation, fatty acid oxidation, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) production and cell proliferation were predicted as bioactive compounds and potential underlying mechanisms, which should be the focus of study in this field in the future.
各种中草药（CHM）已显示出对肝脏有益的保护作用。健肝宝（JGB）是一种功能性中草药配方，由三种著名的中草药组成，包括 、 和 ，它已被用作几种慢性肝病的民间药物。在本研究中，我们旨在系统地评估 JGB 对急性和慢性酒精性肝病（ALD）以及非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）的作用，鉴定其潜在的生物活性成分和作用机制。JGB 对急性和慢性 ALD 以及 NAFLD 具有预防作用，而 JGB 的后期治疗则没有明显效果，这表明 JGB 性质上是一种保健品，而不是药物。此外，还构建了一个化合物-靶标网络，以鉴定调节其肝保护作用的潜在生物活性化合物和途径。通过这项网络药理学研究，共鉴定出 40 种生物活性化合物和 15 个相关靶点。其中包括 miltirone、neocryptotanshinone II 和 deoxyshikonin，它们具有良好的药物特性。预测与炎症、脂肪酸氧化、肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）产生和细胞增殖相关的途径为生物活性化合物和潜在的潜在机制，这应该是该领域未来研究的重点。
