Wen Xianhua, Gu Yuncheng, Chen Beili, Gong Feipeng, Wu Wenting, Tong Hengli, Gong Qianfeng, Yang Songhong, Zhong Lingyun, Liu Xuping
Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, China.
Jiangxi Provincial People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanchang University, Nanchang, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Dec 28;2021:2809004. doi: 10.1155/2021/2809004. eCollection 2021.
Migraine is a disease whose aetiology and mechanism are not yet clear. Chuanxiong Rhizoma (CR) is employed in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat various disorders. CR is effective for migraine, but its active compounds, drug targets, and exact molecular mechanism remain unclear. In this study, we used the method of systems pharmacology to address the above issues. We first established the drug-compound-target-disease (D-C-T-D) network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network related to the treatment of migraine with CR and then established gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses. The results suggest that the treatment process may be related to the regulation of inflammation and neural activity. The docking results also revealed that PTGS2 and TRPV1 could directly bind to the active compounds that could regulate them. In addition, we found that CR affected 11 targets that were more highly expressed in the liver or heart but were the lowest in the whole brain. It also expounds the description of CR channel tropism in TCM theory from these angles. These findings not only indicate that CR can be developed as a potential effective drug for the treatment of migraine but also demonstrate the application of systems pharmacology in the discovery of herbal-based disease therapies.
偏头痛是一种病因和发病机制尚不清楚的疾病。中药川芎用于治疗多种病症。川芎对偏头痛有效，但其活性成分、药物靶点及确切分子机制仍不明确。在本研究中，我们采用系统药理学方法解决上述问题。我们首先构建了与川芎治疗偏头痛相关的药物-化合物-靶点-疾病（D-C-T-D）网络和蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用（PPI）网络，然后进行基因本体论（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）通路富集分析。结果表明，治疗过程可能与炎症和神经活动的调节有关。对接结果还显示，PTGS2和TRPV1可直接与能调节它们的活性成分结合。此外，我们发现川芎影响11个在肝脏或心脏中表达较高但在全脑中表达最低的靶点。这也从这些角度阐释了中医理论中川芎归经的描述。这些发现不仅表明川芎可开发成为治疗偏头痛的潜在有效药物，还证明了系统药理学在基于草药的疾病治疗发现中的应用。
