Study on Mechanism of Iridoid Glycosides Derivatives from Fructus Gardeniae in Jiangxi Province by Network Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the pharmacological mechanism of the iridoid glycosides from Fructus Gardeniae in Jiangxi province by network pharmacology. To provide a valuable research strategy for the rational use and in-depth research and development of Fructus Gardeniae from Jiangxi. METHOD: Previous research results of our group show that the contents of iridoid glycosides in Fructus Gardeniae from Jiangxi province have a significant difference compared with other regions (P < 0.05). Based on our previous experimental results, this study selected six characteristic high-content bioactive iridoid glycosides components of Fructus Gardeniae from Jiangxi province as candidate components. TCMSP database was used to obtain the process parameters of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of candidate components. PubChem and SWISS online database were used to predict the related targets. Cytoscape software was used to the construct compound-target-disease (C-T-D) network of the Fructus Gardeniae iridoid glycosides ingredients. Furthermore, the GO biological process analysis and the pathway enrichment analysis were carried out using the CTD online analysis platform; then, an illustrated network that contains the main “chemicals-targets-pathway (C-T-P)” was constructed to analyze main biological pathways for obtaining the deep mechanism of Fructus Gardeniae in Jiangxi. RESULTS: 6 iridoid glycosides, namely geniposide, gardenoside, geniposidic acid, genipin 1-gentiobioside, gardoside, and shanzhiside, from Fructus Gardeniae in Jiangxi province were obtained as candidate components through previous work and network pharmacology screening. 36 corresponding targets were acted, such as BCL2, MAPT, F2, BCL2L1, PRKCD, PRKCB, HIF1A, and PRKCA. These targets could joint in pathways, such as signaling by GPCR, neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, inflammatory mediator regulation of TRP channels, and ion channel transport. Interestingly, these pathways were highly associated with liver diseases, neurological diseases, hypertension, neoplasms, hyperalgesia, and inflammation. Remarkably, we boldly speculate that the Fructus Gardeniae from Jiangxi province can play a pharmacological role in hepatic encephalopathy through regulating multiple signaling pathways in an integrated manner. CONCLUSION: The method based on system pharmacology could help to find the key targets of characteristic high-content chemical constituents of herb from different producing areas, the signaling pathway and disease network of TCM, and provide useful information and data support for giving a further study on traditional Chinese medicine resources in different regions of China.