Mechanism of Huanglian Houpotang on Ulcerative Colitis by Network Pharmacology and Experimental Verification / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo explore the active components and underlying mechanism of Huanglian Houpotang （HHD） against ulcerative colitis（UC） based on network pharmacology and animal experiments. MethodThe active components of HHD were preliminarily obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform （TCMSP） and Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular Mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicine （BATMAN-TCM） and screened out by TCMSP， SwissADME， and SwissTargetPrediction， and their targets were predicted. Relevant microarrays were searched for disease genes with the help of Gene Expression Omnibus （GEO）. The common targets of HHD and disease genes were screened out to obtain the potential targets of HHD against UC. The drug-active component-target-disease network was constructed using Cytoscape 3.7.2. The potential therapeutic targets were imported into the DAVID 6.8 for GO-Biological process （GO-BP） analysis to predict related biological processes which were subsequently verified by the animal experiment. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA） was used to detect the effect of HHD on inflammatory factors in colon tissues of mice. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 （Bcl-2）， Bcl-2-associated X protein （Bax）， and cysteinyl aspartate-specific protease 3 （Caspase-3）. The IVIS system was used to detect the content of reactive oxygen species （ROS） in colon tissues of mice in each group. ResultNineteen active components of HHD were screened out， involving 32 potential therapeutic targets against UC and 158 biological processes. The results of the animal experiment showed that HHD exerted its anti-UC effect by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory factors tumor necrosis factor （TNF）-α and interleukin-1β （IL-1β）， reducing the content of apoptotic proteins， and regulating the expression of ROS. ConclusionThis study revealed the rationality of predictions and guidance of network pharmacology in experimental design， and confirmed that HHD could exert its effects by participating in biological processes such as immune inflammation， apoptosis， and ROS， which is expected to provide a basis for the mechanism research of HHD in the treatment of UC.