Network Pharmacology-Based Study of Active Ingredients and Mechanisms of Compound Xuanju for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Objective: Compound Xuanju has good effects in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but its composition is complex, and its active ingredients and mechanism have not been fully defined. In this study, the active ingredients and mechanism of compound Xuanju for the treatment of RA were explored through network pharmacological methods. Methods: TCMSP and TCMID, Pubmed, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases were used to screen, select active pharmaceutical ingredients and targets; Drugbank disease target screening database, GeneCards database, Therapeutic The Target Database (TTD) database and DisGeNET database were used to collect RA  targets, and OmicShare was used to screen compound Xuanju and RA for common targets and construct a Venn diagram. A protein target database String was used to construct a common target interaction network. OmicShare mapping software builds a "drug-active ingredient-target" network and analyzes their associations. DAVID online software performs gene annotation (GO) and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on key targets. Results: A total of 73 effective ingredients of compound Xuanju were obtained, and corresponding to 229 targets; 2337 targets for RA. 155 key targets for potential active ingredients of compound Xuanju predicted therapeutic effect of RA, the key targets map 55 active ingredients of compound Xuanju capsules. These targets mainly involve signaling pathways such as Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway acting on RA. Conclusion: Compound Xuanju may via its potential 55 active ingredients act on 155 targets to treat RA through Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway. This study lays the theoretical basis for the widespread application of compound Xuanju in clinical practice.