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Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment

Spleen qi deficiency (SQD) syndrome is one of the basic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes related to various diseases including chronic inflammation and hypertension and guides the use of many herbal formulae. However, the biological basis of SQD syndrome has not been clearly elucidated d...

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Autores principales: Wang, Xin, Wu, Min, Lai, Xinxing, Zheng, Jiahui, Hu, Minghua, Li, Yan, Li, Shao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32908629
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/2974268
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author Wang, Xin
Wu, Min
Lai, Xinxing
Zheng, Jiahui
Hu, Minghua
Li, Yan
Li, Shao
author_facet Wang, Xin
Wu, Min
Lai, Xinxing
Zheng, Jiahui
Hu, Minghua
Li, Yan
Li, Shao
author_sort Wang, Xin
collection PubMed
description Spleen qi deficiency (SQD) syndrome is one of the basic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes related to various diseases including chronic inflammation and hypertension and guides the use of many herbal formulae. However, the biological basis of SQD syndrome has not been clearly elucidated due to the lack of appropriate methodologies. Here, we propose a network pharmacology strategy integrating computational, clinical, and experimental investigation to study the biological basis of SQD syndrome. From computational aspects, we used a powerful disease gene prediction algorithm to predict the SQD syndrome biomolecular network which is significantly enriched in biological functions including immune regulation, oxidative stress, and lipid metabolism. From clinical aspects, SQD syndrome is involved in both the local and holistic disorders, that is, the digestive diseases and the whole body's dysfunctions. We, respectively, investigate SQD syndrome-related digestive diseases including chronic gastritis and irritable bowel syndrome and the whole body's dysfunctions such as chronic fatigue syndrome and hypertension. We found innate immune and oxidative stress modules of SQD syndrome biomolecular network dysfunction in chronic gastritis patients and irritable bowel syndrome patients. Lymphocyte modules were downregulated in chronic fatigue syndrome patients and hypertension patients. From experimental aspects, network pharmacology analysis suggested that targets of Radix Astragali and other four herbs commonly used for SQD syndrome are significantly enriched in the SQD syndrome biomolecular network. Experiments further validated that Radix Astragali ingredients promoted immune modules such as macrophage proliferation and lymphocyte proliferation. These findings indicate that the biological basis of SQD syndrome is closely related to insufficient immune response including decreased macrophage activity and reduced lymphocyte proliferation. This study not only demonstrates the potential biological basis of SQD syndrome but also provides a novel strategy for exploring relevant molecular mechanisms of disease-syndrome-herb from the network pharmacology perspective.
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spelling pubmed-74743752020-09-08 Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment Wang, Xin Wu, Min Lai, Xinxing Zheng, Jiahui Hu, Minghua Li, Yan Li, Shao Oxid Med Cell Longev Research Article Spleen qi deficiency (SQD) syndrome is one of the basic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes related to various diseases including chronic inflammation and hypertension and guides the use of many herbal formulae. However, the biological basis of SQD syndrome has not been clearly elucidated due to the lack of appropriate methodologies. Here, we propose a network pharmacology strategy integrating computational, clinical, and experimental investigation to study the biological basis of SQD syndrome. From computational aspects, we used a powerful disease gene prediction algorithm to predict the SQD syndrome biomolecular network which is significantly enriched in biological functions including immune regulation, oxidative stress, and lipid metabolism. From clinical aspects, SQD syndrome is involved in both the local and holistic disorders, that is, the digestive diseases and the whole body's dysfunctions. We, respectively, investigate SQD syndrome-related digestive diseases including chronic gastritis and irritable bowel syndrome and the whole body's dysfunctions such as chronic fatigue syndrome and hypertension. We found innate immune and oxidative stress modules of SQD syndrome biomolecular network dysfunction in chronic gastritis patients and irritable bowel syndrome patients. Lymphocyte modules were downregulated in chronic fatigue syndrome patients and hypertension patients. From experimental aspects, network pharmacology analysis suggested that targets of Radix Astragali and other four herbs commonly used for SQD syndrome are significantly enriched in the SQD syndrome biomolecular network. Experiments further validated that Radix Astragali ingredients promoted immune modules such as macrophage proliferation and lymphocyte proliferation. These findings indicate that the biological basis of SQD syndrome is closely related to insufficient immune response including decreased macrophage activity and reduced lymphocyte proliferation. This study not only demonstrates the potential biological basis of SQD syndrome but also provides a novel strategy for exploring relevant molecular mechanisms of disease-syndrome-herb from the network pharmacology perspective. Hindawi 2020-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7474375/ /pubmed/32908629 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/2974268 Text en Copyright © 2020 Xin Wang et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, Xin
Wu, Min
Lai, Xinxing
Zheng, Jiahui
Hu, Minghua
Li, Yan
Li, Shao
Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment
title Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment
title_full Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment
title_fullStr Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment
title_full_unstemmed Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment
title_short Network Pharmacology to Uncover the Biological Basis of Spleen Qi Deficiency Syndrome and Herbal Treatment
title_sort network pharmacology to uncover the biological basis of spleen qi deficiency syndrome and herbal treatment
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7474375/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32908629
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/2974268
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