A System-Level Mechanism of Anmyungambi Decoction for Obesity: A Network Pharmacological Approach

Obesity is a low-grade systemic inflammatory disease involving adipocytokines. As though Anmyungambi decoction (AMGB) showed significant improvement on obesity in a clinical trial, the molecular mechanism of AMGB in obesity remains unknown. Therefore, we explored the potential mechanisms of action of AMGB on obesity through network pharmacological approaches. We revealed that targets of AMGB are significantly associated with obesity-related and adipocyte-elevated genes. Evodiamine, berberine, genipin, palmitic acid, genistein, and quercetin were shown to regulate adipocytokine signaling pathway proteins which mainly involved tumor necrosis factor receptor 1, leptin receptor. In terms of the regulatory pathway of lipolysis in adipocytes, norephedrine, pseudoephedrine, quercetin, and limonin were shown to affect adrenergic receptor-beta, protein kinase A, etc. We also found that AMGB has the potentials to enhance the insulin signaling pathway thereby preventing type II diabetes mellitus. Additionally, AMGB was discovered to be able to control not only insulin-related proteins but also inflammatory mediators and apoptotic regulators and caspases, hence reducing hepatocyte injury in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Our findings help develop a better understanding of how AMGB controls obesity.