Qiu Chao, Chen Qiang, Hou Qun, Qi Guanshu
Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310006, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022 Jun 26;2022:9043822. doi: 10.1155/2022/9043822. eCollection 2022.
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a rare autoimmune disease with clinical symptoms of fluctuating muscle weakness. Due to the side effects of current therapies, there is an urgent need for a new medication for MG treatment. Nux vomica is a traditional Chinese medicine used in various diseases. However, the mechanism of action of Nux vomica against MG remains unclear.
Network pharmacology was used to explore the underlying mechanisms of Nux vomica in MG treatment, which was validated using molecular docking and experiments in mice.
Twelve bioactive compounds and 72 targets in Nux vomica were screened. Seventy-nine myasthenia-related targets were obtained from the GENECARD and DisGeNET databases. PPI networks of Nux vomica- and myasthenia-related targets were constructed using Bisogenet, and these two networks were subsequently merged into an intersection to establish a core-target PPI network that consisted of 204 nodes and 4,668 edges. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that 132 pathways were enriched in 204 core targets. In addition, we obtained 50 docking pairs via molecular docking. experiments revealed that Nux vomica can improve the symptoms of MG.
Nux vomica is involved in the pathogenesis of MG through the "multicomponent-target-pathway" mechanism.
重症肌无力（MG）是一种罕见的自身免疫性疾病，临床症状为肌肉无力波动。由于现有疗法的副作用，迫切需要一种用于治疗MG的新药。马钱子是一种用于多种疾病的传统中药。然而，马钱子治疗MG的作用机制尚不清楚。
采用网络药理学探索马钱子治疗MG的潜在机制，并通过分子对接和小鼠实验进行验证。
筛选出马钱子中的12种生物活性化合物和72个靶点。从GENECARD和DisGeNET数据库中获得79个重症肌无力相关靶点。使用Bisogenet构建马钱子相关靶点和重症肌无力相关靶点的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用（PPI）网络，随后将这两个网络合并为一个交集，以建立一个由204个节点和4668条边组成的核心靶点PPI网络。KEGG富集分析表明，204个核心靶点中富集了132条通路。此外，通过分子对接获得了50个对接对。实验表明马钱子可以改善MG的症状。
马钱子通过“多成分-靶点-通路”机制参与MG的发病机制。
