ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential effective components and mechanism of Achyranthes bidentata in the treatment of osteoporosis (OP). METHODS: The effective components of A. bidentata were retrieved from the TCMSP database, and corresponding targets of them were collected. The targets related to OP were retrieved from DisGeNET database. TBtools 1.0 mapping software was used to draw the Wayne diagram, and screen the intersecting targets of effective components of A. bidentata and disease OP. Cytoscape 3.6.1 software and STRING database were used to construct and analyze the “drug-component- disease-target” network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network; KEGG pathway enrichment analysis was conducted by using DAVID bioinformatics resource database. RESULTS: A total of 19 effective components were screened from A. bidentata, and there were 32 intersecting targets between effective components and disease OP. In “drug-component-disease-target” network, there were 45 nodes [1 for A. bidentata, 1 for OP, 11 for effective components (8 of the 19 effective components had no corresponding OP target), 32 for intersecting targets] and 119 edges between nodes; quercetin, kaempferol, wogonin, baicalein and palmatine were important effective components. In PPI network, there were 31 nodes (1 of 32 intersecting targets was not associated with other proteins) and 212 edges, among which IL6, ESR1, MAPK1, IL8 and MAPK14 were the core targets of the network. There were 67 KEGG enrichment pathways, including rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis B, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, JAK/STAT signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway and so on. CONCLUSIONS: The main potential effective components of A. bidentata in the treatment of OP are quercetin, kaempferol, wogonin, baicalein and palmatine, the mechanism of which may be associated with cell differentiation and apoptosis, metabolism, inflammation reaction, etc. It has multi-component, multi-target and multi-system chara- cteristics.