Mechanisms of Action of Semen Ziziphi spinosae in the Treatment of Tourette Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Semen Ziziphi spinosae, known as Suanzaoren (SZR) in Chinese, is a Chinese herbal medicine widely used in sedatives and tranquilizers. Although SZR is important for the clinical treatment of Tourette syndrome (TS), its mechanism of action remains unclear. Therefore, we investigated the pharmacological mechanisms of SZR in TS treatment using network pharmacology and systems biology approaches. METHODS: The bioactive components and potential targets of SZR were screened using the TCMSP database. UniProt was used to identify targets by mapping the known genes related to SZR. The known genes related to TS were identified by GeneCards and OMIM databases. A protein-protein interaction network was constructed using information from STRING 11.0 database. Cytoscape 3.8.0 software and Bioinformatics online platform were used for plotting this network. Gene ontology and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed using Metascape. Finally, AutoDock was used to verify the molecular docking. RESULTS: We found that SZR had 10 active compounds. There were 30 overlapping target genes between TS and SZR. These genes were associated with several signaling and metabolic pathways. AChE, SLC6A4, and HTR3A were the top three hub genes. The active components in SZR had a high binding affinity for the key targets. CONCLUSION: SZR therapy for TS could achieve network regulation through the action of various active components of Chinese medicine on different targets and generate a complex regulatory relationship via interaction with potential targets, thereby playing a therapeutic role. Thus, SZR is a potential candidate for treating TS because it regulates nervous system functions.