Network pharmacology-based and molecular docking prediction of the active ingredients and mechanism of ZaoRenDiHuang capsules for application in insomnia treatment

  • De Jin
  • , Jinghua Zhang
  • , Yuqing Zhang
  • , Xuedong An
  • , Shenghui Zhao
  • , Liyun Duan
  • , Yuehong Zhang
  • , Zhong Zhen
  • , Fengmei Lian
  • , Xiaolin Tong

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: The ZaoRenDiHuang (ZRDH) capsule is widely used in clinical practice and has significant therapeutic effects on insomnia. However, its active ingredients and mechanisms of action for insomnia remain unknown. In this study, network pharmacology was employed to elucidate the potential anti-insomnia mechanisms of ZRDH. Methods: The potential active ingredients of ZRDH were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database. Possible targets were predicted using SwissTargetPrediction tools. The insomnia-related targets were identified using the therapeutic target database, Drugbank database, Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man database, and gene-disease associations database. A compound-target-disease network was constructed using Cytoscape for visualization. Additionally, the protein functional annotation and identification of signaling pathways of potential targets were performed using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses using the Metascape platform. Results: In this study, 61 anti-insomnia components and 65 anti-insomnia targets of ZRDH were filtered through database mining. The drug-disease network was constructed with five key components. Sixty-five key targets were identified using topological analysis. Docking studies indicated that bioactive compounds could stably bind to the pockets of target proteins. Through data mining and network analysis, the GO terms and KEGG annotation suggested that the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, serotonergic synapse CAMP signaling, HIF−1a signaling, and toll-like receptor signaling pathways play vital roles against insomnia. Conclusion: The potential mechanisms of ZRDH treatment for insomnia involve multiple components, targets, and pathways. These findings provide a reference for further investigations into the mechanisms underlying ZRDH treatment of insomnia.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104562
JournalComputers in Biology and Medicine
Volume135
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2021
Externally publishedYes

Free Keywords

  • Anti-insomnia mechanism
  • Bioactive compounds
  • Insomnia
  • Network pharmacology
  • ZaoRenDiHuang capsule

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health Informatics
  • Computer Science Applications

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