Systematic Pharmacological Methodology to Explore the Pharmacological Mechanism of Siwu Decoction for Osteoporosis

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is an important health problem worldwide. Siwu decoction (SWD) and its modification have a good clinical effect on osteoporosis. However, the molecular mechanism of SWD on osteoporosis has not been thoroughly explained. MATERIAL/METHODS: A systematic pharmacological methodology was utilized to predict the active compounds and potential targets of SWD, collect the genes of osteoporosis and the known targets of SWD, and analyze the osteoporosis and SWD’s network. RESULTS: Five networks were constructed and analyzed: (1) Osteoporosis genes’ protein–protein interaction (PPI) network; (2) Compound-compound target network of SWD; (3) SWD-osteoporosis PPI network; (4) Compound-known target network of SWD; and (5) SWD known target- osteoporosis PPI network. Several osteoporosis and treatment-related targets (eg.,. HSP90AB1, FGFR1, HRAS, GRB2, and PGF), clusters, biological processes, and signaling pathways (e.g., PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, insulin signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway and FoxO signaling pathway) were found. CONCLUSIONS: The therapeutic effect of SWD on osteoporosis may be achieved by interfering with the biological processes and signaling pathways related to the development of osteoporosis.