Lee Won-Yung, Lee Choong-Yeol, Kim Chang-Eop, Kim Ji-Hwan
Department of Physiology, College of Korean Medicine, Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea.
Department of Sasang Constitutional Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Gachon University, Seongnam, Republic of Korea.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Apr 13;2021:6665130. doi: 10.1155/2021/6665130. eCollection 2021.
Sasang constitutional (SC) medicine classifies people into Soeum (SE), Soyang (SY), Taeeum (TE), and Taeyang (TY) types based on psychological and physical traits. However, biomarkers of these types are still unclear. We aimed to identify biomarkers among the SC types using network pharmacology methods. Target genes associated with the SC types were identified by grouping herb targets that preserve and strengthen the requisite energy (). The herb targets were obtained by constructing an herb-compound-target network. We identified 371, 185, 146, and 89 target genes and their unique biological processes related to SE, SY, TE, and TY types, respectively. While the targets of SE and SY types were the most similar among the target pairs of the SC types, those of TY type overlapped with only a few other SC-type targets. Moreover, SE, SY, TE, and TY were related to "diseases of the digestive system," "diseases of the nervous system," "endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases," and "congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal abnormalities," respectively. We successfully identified the target genes, biological processes, and diseases related to each SC type. We also demonstrated that a drug-centric approach using network pharmacology analysis provides a deeper understanding of the concept of Sasang constitutional medicine at a phenotypic level.
四象体质医学根据心理和生理特征将人分为少阴人（SE）、少阳人（SY）、太阴人（TE）和太阳人（TY）四种类型。然而，这些类型的生物标志物仍不明确。我们旨在使用网络药理学方法在四象体质类型中识别生物标志物。通过对保存和增强所需能量的草药靶点进行分组，确定与四象体质类型相关的靶基因。草药靶点通过构建草药-化合物-靶点网络获得。我们分别鉴定出与少阴人、少阳人、太阴人和太阳人类型相关的371、185、146和89个靶基因及其独特的生物学过程。在四象体质类型的靶点对中，少阴人和少阳人类型的靶点最为相似，而太阳人类型的靶点仅与其他少数四象体质类型的靶点重叠。此外，少阴人、少阳人、太阴人和太阳人分别与“消化系统疾病”、“神经系统疾病”、“内分泌、营养和代谢疾病”以及“先天性畸形、变形和染色体异常”相关。我们成功鉴定出与每种四象体质类型相关的靶基因、生物学过程和疾病。我们还证明，使用网络药理学分析的以药物为中心的方法在表型水平上能更深入地理解四象体质医学的概念。
