Evidence Construction of Chuankezhi Injection Against Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Systematic Review and Network Pharmacology

Abstract

Objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic respiratory disease with high prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. Chuankezhi (CKZ) injection, a Chinese patent medicine, has been commonly used for treating COPD. This study evaluated the clinical efficacy of CKZ injections in COPD patients and explored potential underlying mechanisms by integrating meta-analysis and network pharmacology.
Research Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were search in database by Web of Science, Cochrane Library and PubMed as of November 2022 for literature collection, and the Review Manager 5.4 was used to analyze the data. Through the network pharmacology method, the chemical components and their targets, as well as the disease targets were further analyzed.
Results: A total of 15 RCTs including 1212 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that CKZ injection can significantly improve the clinical effective rate (RR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.36), and the clinical advantage was that it can significantly reduced acute exacerbation rate (RR = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.70) and COPD assessment test (CAT) scores (MD =− 4.62, 95% CI:-8.966 to-0.28). A total of 31 chemical compounds and 178 potential targets for CKZ injection were obtained from the online databases. Molecular docking revealed that most key components and targets could form stable structure.
Conclusion: This systematic review with meta-analysis and network pharmacology demonstrates that CKZ could effectively improve the clinical efficacy and safety in the treatment of COPD. Such efficacy may be related to an anti-inflammatory effect and immunoregulation of CKZ via multiple components, multiple targets and multiple pathways.

Keywords: meta-analysis, network pharmacology, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Chuankezhi injection