[Potential action mechanism of Yishen Tongluo Prescription on male infertility: An analysis based on network pharmacology].

Objective: To analyze the main active components and potential molecular mechanism of Yishen Tongluo Prescription (YTP) in the treatment of male infertility based on network pharmacological technology.

Methods: We searched and sorted the main active components of YTP and their individual potential targets in the databases of Systematic Pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Bioinformatics Analysis Tool of the Molecular Mechanism of TCM, and screened the targets related to male infertility diseases in the databases of Genecards, DisGeNET and OMIM. We made a Venn diagram by intersecting the predicted targets of YTP and those of male infertility diseases, constructed visualized networks for the association of the intersection targets and protein-protein interaction (PPI) using the Cytoscape software and STRING platform respectively, and conducted gene ontology (GO) and KEGG enrichment analyses using the DAVID database and R language "Cluster Profiler" software package respectively.

Results: A total of 99 active components, 250 targets of YTP, 4 397 targets of male infertility and 127 common targets were identified. GO analysis revealed that the biological processes of the common targets mainly included transcriptional regulation of RNA polymerase promoter Ⅱ, regulation of gene expressions, regulation of apoptosis, responses to estrogen, and cell responses to hypoxia. KEGG analysis showed significant enrichment of the common targets in the estrogen signaling pathway, cell apoptosis pathway, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, and TNF signaling pathway.

Conclusion: Through network pharmacology, we identified the main active components of YTP and its multi-target and multi-pathway mechanism in the treatment of male infertility, which has paved the ground for animal and cell experiments in verifying the action mechanism of YTP on male infertility.