Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

In silico investigation of the mechanism of action of kojic acid effects via protein-protein interaction network

Awais Wahab¹, Ghulam Murtaza², Hafsa Anam², Chuanhong Wu¹

¹School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China; ²Department of Pharmacy, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Chuanhong Wu Email: chuanhongwu@qdu.edu.cn

Accepted: 16 September 2021 Published: 31 October 2021

Citation: Wahab A, Murtaza G, Anam H, Wu C. In silico investigation of the mechanism of action of kojic acid effects via protein-protein interaction network. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(10):2063-2069 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i10.8

© 2021 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 evaluate the molecular mechanism of kojic acid by network pharmacology.

Methods: This study was conducted by designing a protein-protein interaction network through the STITCH database and analyzing biological processes via Cytoscape plugin ClueGO.

Results: A total of 19 protein targets of kojic acid including TYR, NOS3, NOS2, and NOS1 were found. The PPI network helped to understand the mode of action of kojic acid at a molecular level. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis resulted in the retrieval of 104 GO terms which were related to various physiological processes. GO analysis revealed that kojic acid might be involved in the regulation of several biological processes such as circadian gene expression and transcription initiation of RNA polymerase 2.

Conclusion: The findings from this study reveal that the retrieved GO pathways are known to be involved in several diseases such as inflammation, cancer, aging, pigmentation, and melisma. Furthermore, these pathways are directly or indirectly related to kojic acid. Thus, this study has contributed to a better understanding of the mode of action of kojic acid.

Keywords: Network pharmacology, STITCH database, Gene ontology, Circadian regulation, Transcription