Network pharmacology-based research on the action mechanism of Caulis Sinomenii in treating rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Caulis sinomenii (CS) is one of the main herbs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the southwestern minority areas of China. However, there are multiple components in CS, and their synergy in treating RA is still not clear. In this study, we aimed to explore action mechanism of CS in treating RA. The CS component was obtained by TCMSP and ETCM, and the active component of CS was screened by reference to oral bioavailability and drug-like properties. We obtained the target of RA through DisGeNET and CTD, and mapped the target of CS active component with disease target by BATMAN-TCM to obtain the potential target of CS treatment of RA. Next, we performed GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on the potential targets of CS treatment of RA, and constructed a network of interactions between targets, CS-active component-target-critical pathway networks. Finally, we referred to the network's topological parameters, KEGG pathway annotation information, etc. to screen and analyze target points, GO terms, and pathways, and used molecular docking technology to verify the selected key targets. We obtained 9 active components of CS (Beta-sitosterol, Stigmasterol, Stepholidine, etc.) and 30 potential targets for CS treatment of RA (AKT1, NFKB1, JUN, etc.). In the results of enrichment of these targets, 20 key pathways (Osteoclast differentiation, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, Leukocyte transendothelial migration, etc.) and more than 160 GO entries (lysosome, cell surface, NADPH oxidase complex, etc.) were screened. We constructed CS-active component-target-key pathway network to visually demonstrate the relationships between the various levels. We screened 7 hub targets in the network, and the molecular docking results of the 7 Hub target-corresponding protein and CS active components showed strong binding ability. In this study, we predicted the multi-component and multi-target synergy of CS in treating RA, and provided a reference for further experimental verification and clinical application.