System Pharmacology-Based Strategy to Decode the Synergistic Mechanism of GanDouLing for Wilson's Disease

RESULTS: Firstly, 324 active compounds have been identified in the GDL formula. Meanwhile, we identified 1496 human genes which are related to WD or liver cirrhosis. Functional and pathway enrichment analysis indicated that NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, bile secretion, calcium signaling pathway, steroid hormone biosynthesis, T cell receptor signaling pathway, apoptosis, MAPK signaling pathway, and so forth can be obviously regulated by GDL. Further, in a mouse model of WD, in vivo experiments showed that GDL treatment can not only reduce the pathological symptoms of the liver but also reduce the apoptosis of hepatocytes. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, systemic pharmacological methods were proposed and the mechanism of GDL combined therapy for WD was explored. This method can be used as a reference for the study of other mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine.