Molecular Mechanism of YuPingFeng in the Treatment of Asthma Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Technology

OBJECTIVE: To explore the molecular targets and mechanism of YuPingFeng (YPF) for the treatment of asthma by using network pharmacology and molecular docking. METHODS: The potential active ingredients and relevant targets of YPF were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). Asthma-related gene targets were retrieved from GeneCards, OMIM, DrugBank, PharmGKB, and TTD databases. The protein-protein (PPI) network between YPF and asthma common targets was constructed by SRING online database and Cytoscape software. GO and KEGG analyses were performed to explore the complicated molecular biological processes and potential pathways. Finally, a molecular docking approach was carried out to verify the results. RESULTS: We obtained 100 potential targets of the 35 active ingredients in YPF and 1610 asthma-related targets. 60 YPF-asthma common targets were selected to perform PPI analysis. Seven core genes were screened based on two topological calculation methods. GO and KEGG results showed that the main pathways of YPF in treating asthma include TNF signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Finally, the molecular docking results indicated that the key ingredients of YPF had a good affinity with the relevant core genes. CONCLUSION: This study reflects the multicomponent, multitarget, and multipathway characteristics of YPF in treating asthma, providing a theoretical and scientific basis for the intervention of asthma by traditional Chinese medicine YPF.