Exploring the effect of Radix Bupleuri (Bupleurum chinense DC) on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease based on network pharmacology

Objective : To investigate the main effects of Radix Bupleuri (Chinese name called Chai Hu) in the prevention and improvement of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease using network pharmacology techniques. Methods : We used the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systematic Pharmacology database to query the main active ingredients of Radix Bupleuri; used the DisGenet database, Treatment Target Database, and DrugBank Database to screen the targets of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; used the matching traditional Chinese medicine-disease targets to build the traditional Chinese medicine-component-target network system using Cytoscape software; used STRING software to build the protein protein interaction system and visualized the data; DAVID database was used for gene ontology functional enrichment study and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway study. Results : Twelve major functional components and 175 targets have been obtained for the prevention and alleviation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in Radix Bupleuri; network pharmacology also confirmed the maximum degree value of kaempferol, the main active component of Radix Bupleuri; gene ontology functional enrichment analysis obtained the top 10 entries of biological process, cellular component, molecular function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis obtained the top 30 entries of the signalling pathway. Conclusion : Radix Bupleuri may use Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, Cancer, Advanced glycation end-(receptor of advanced glycation, interleukin 17, Hepatitis B, Toxoplasmosis, Relaxin, and tumor necrosis factor signalling pathway to regulate the inflammatory response of interleukin 6, tumor necrosis factor, and prostaglandin endoperoxide synthase2 targets and reduce extracellular matrix deposition to improve the therapeutic effect of Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And the active ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine Radix Bupleuri, kaempferol, may also play a significant role in this.