Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

A system-level mechanistic investigation of traditional Chinese medicine, Yinlai Decoction, for related diseases

Tie-Gang Liu, Zi-An Zheng, Yu-Xiang Wan, Chen Bai, Jing-Nan Xu, He Yu, Xiao-Hong Gu

School of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China;

For correspondence:- Xiao-Hong Gu Email: greatscenery@126.com Tel:+8610153562

Received: 27 March 2017 Accepted: 20 July 2017 Published: 31 August 2017

Citation: Liu T, Zheng Z, Wan Y, Bai C, Xu J, Yu H, et al. A system-level mechanistic investigation of traditional Chinese medicine, Yinlai Decoction, for related diseases. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(8):1909-1916 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i8.22

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To systemically explore the pharmacological mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine, Yinlai Decoction (YD), used in the clinical management of pediatric diseases such as pneumonia and recurrent respiratory tract infections.

Methods: An ingredient-target-disease database of YD was constructed using Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). First, the molecular targets related to lung and stomach diseases were searched and screened to avoid duplication. Second, the associations between these molecular targets were evaluated via Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING) and Gene Ontology (GO) and Pathway enrichment analysis in STRING.

Results: A total of 627 chemical ingredients and 654 protein targets in YD were obtained. After further screening, 38 molecular targets linked to respiratory diseases, inflammatory responses and various infections were identified. Finally, 576 GO terms and 75 KEGG pathway terms were obtained by analyzing gene functional annotation clusters and abundance value of these targets. Most of these terms were closely related to the inflammatory response.

Conclusion: Based on these in silico findings, the use of YD for treating respiratory diseases, inflammation and various infections, most probably via the suppression of inflammation, has been established. The approach adopted in this study can serve as a model methodology to develop an innovative TCM candidate drug at a network pharmacology level.

Keywords: Yinlai Decoction, Network (System) pharmacology, Inflammation, Interacting genes/proteins, Gene ocntology, Pathway enrichment analysis