Title:A Network Pharmacology Approach for Uncovering the Mechanism of
'Kouchuangling' in Radiation-induced Oral Mucositis Treatment
Volume: 26
Issue: 5
Author(s): Pei Sheng, Jing Xie, Yuqing Wu, Xiaotong Xia, Bo Li*Mianhua Wu
Affiliation:
- The First Clinical Medical College, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210023, China
- Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine Prevention and Treatment of Tumor, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210023, China
- Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Chinese Medicinal Resources Industrialization, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210023, China
Keywords:
Network pharmacology, 'Kouchuangling', radiation-induced oral mucositis, traditional Chinese medicine, oral erythema, ulcers.
Abstract:
Background: Radiation-induced oral mucositis (RIOM) is an intractable inflammatory
disease whose pathogenesis needs to be clarified. “Kouchuangling” (KCL), a traditional Chinese
medicine formula, is composed of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos, Radix Paeoniae Rubra, and Radix
Sanguisorbae. Although all of them are Chinese folk medicines which have long been utilized for
ameliorating inflammation, the mechanism of KCL to RIOM remains unclear.
Purpose: To predict the active ingredients of KCL and identify the mechanism of KCL on RIOM.
Materials and Methods: We identified the chemical ingredients in KCL using TCM Systems
Pharmacology (TCMSP), TCM@Taiwan, PubChem, and SuperPred databases and used the oral
bioavailability (OB), drug-like properties (DL) and Degree of compounds for screening. Targets
for oral mucositis were obtained from the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), Therapeutic
Target Database (TTD), PharmGKB, and DrugBank databases. Cytoscape 3.7.0 was used to
visualize the compound-target-disease network for KCL and RIOM. The biological processes of
target gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways
were analyzed using DAVID.
Results: Based on OB≥30%, DL≥0.18 and Degree≥3, 24 active ingredients and 960 targets on
which the active components acted were identified. A total of 1387 targets for oral mucositis were
screened. GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analyses resulted in 43 biological processes (BPs), 3
cell components (CCs), 5 molecular functions (MFs), and 32 KEGG pathways, including leishmaniasis,
Toll-like receptor signaling, TNF signaling, and Influenza A pathways.
Conclusion: This experiment preliminarily verified that the active ingredients of KCL play a role
in the treatment of RIOM through multiple targets and pathways, providing a reference for further
study of the pharmacological mechanism of Chinese herbal medicine.
