Combining network pharmacology and in vitro and in vivo experiments to study the mechanism of Keluoxin in the treatment of radiation nephropathy

Radiation nephropathy refers to kidney damage caused by radiation therapy for malignant tumours. Currently, the pathogenesis is unclear and there is a lack of effective treatment methods. With the development of traditional Chinese medicine, the role of traditional Chinese medicine in the protection of radiation nephropathy is receiving increasing attention. Therefore, in this study, we used X-ray intraperitoneal irradiation to construct a mouse model of radiation nephropathy and studied the protective effect of traditional Chinese medicine Keluoxin on radiation nephropathy. We first analysed the potential targets and pathways of Keluoxin in the treatment of radiation nephropathy using network pharmacology methods, combined with in vitro and in vivo experimental verification, to study its potential mechanism. By searching the database, 136 components of Keluoxin were identified. A total of 333 intersectional targets related to radiation nephropathy were obtained. Among them, key targets include IL-6, TNF-α, HIF-1α, STAT1, STAT3, JAK1, JAK2, etc. In in vivo and in vitro experiments, we found that as the irradiation dose increased and time prolonged, kidney damage in mice gradually worsened in a time-dependent and dose-dependent manner. As the irradiation dose increases, the expression of pro-inflammatory factors Il-6, TNF-α, TGF-β increased. Compared with the irradiation group, the intervention of Keluoxin can reduce kidney damage caused by X-ray irradiation and reduce the expression of IL-6, TNF-α, TGF-β, STAT1, STAT3, JAK1, JAK2, etc. These results indicated that Keluoxin can alleviate kidney damage caused by X-ray irradiation, possibly by regulating the JAK/STAT signalling pathway, reducing inflammation levels and oxidative stress damage.