Network Pharmacology Bridges Traditional Application and Modern Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has developed over thousands of years and has accumulated abundant clinical experience, forming a comprehensive and unique medical system. Emerging evidence has begun to illustrate TCM as an area of important medical rediscoveries. This review article briefly introduced the concept, significance, and technology of network pharmacology based on network biology and systems biology. It focused on the theoretical system and potential prospect of TCM network applied in TCM research and development including predicting new drug targets, action mechanism, new drug discovery; evaluating pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, safety, toxicology, quality control, and bioinformatics of drugs. We also discussed the opportunities and challenges in the development and application of network pharmacology in the modernization of TCM research.

Development and Application of Network Toxicology in Safety Research of Chinese Materia Medica

Network toxicology that is an important branch of the network pharmacology emerges on the basis of network biology. It refers to study on the toxicological features of a constructed network model which is used to analyze toxic substances and their interaction and regulation in biological systems, particularly investigate the toxic effects of drugs and/or compatibility of medicines on body, and clarify the mechanism of toxicity. Network toxicology currently develops rapidly in safety prediction of Chinese materia medica （CMM）. The application of network toxicology to safety and toxicology study on CMM is extremely beneficial to identify the toxic components and potential incompatibility of CMM. Since CMM is a complex system with multi-components, multi-targets, and multi-interactions, the network toxicology in safety prediction of CMM faces three great challenges, including integration studies of bioinformatics, innovation of methods, and tools and risk assessment in future development of the network toxicology in CMM research. In this paper, relevant database, approaches and tools that network toxicology utilized in the safety study of CMM were carefully reviewed. Based on the progress made, the scientific development and modernization of CMM will be greatly enhanced.

LC–MS/MS Method for Quantification of Liquiritigenin in Rat Plasma: Application to Pharmacokinetic Study of Liquiritin

Objective A simple, sensitive, and rapid LC-MS/MS method has been established and validated for the determination of liquiritigenin （LG） in rat plasma. Methods Naringenin was chosen as internal standard （IS）. LG and IS were separated on a Diamonsil C18 analytical column with a mobile phase of methanol-10% methanol in water containing 0.5 mmol/L ammonium formate and 0.2% formic acid （55：45） at the isocratic flow rate of 0.6 mL/min for 10 min. The multiple reaction monitoring （MRM） was performed on a mass spectrometer in the negative ion mode with electro-spray ionization （ESI） source and the transition from precursor ion to product ion was m/z255.0~119.0 for LG and m/z 271.04151.0 for IS, respectively. Results The linearity was acceptable in the range of 5-5000 ng/mL （r= 0.9973）. The inter-day and intra-day accuracies were in the ranges of -0.09%-3.25% and -5.02%-9.21%, respectively. The precision was in the ranges of 3.60%-12.4% and 0.909%-6.89%, respectively. LG was stable in the course of anarysis and storage. Conclusion The LC-MS/MS method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study for the first time in rats after ig and iv administration of liquiritin （LQ）, a glycoside of LG, at pharmacologically effective levels.

Molecular Simulation Study on Bentysrepinine Metabolites Improving Binding Affinity of HBV DNA Polymerase

Objective To study the effect of bentysrepinine（Y101） metabolites on improving binding affinity of HBV DNA polymerase. Methods The binding mode of Y101 and its metabolites with DNA polymerase has been driven by hydrophobic interaction. Results Two compounds, T2 and T4, exhibited the improvement of the binding affinity to HBV DNA polymerase protein, which suggests that the inhibitory activity against HBV DNA polymerase protein can be enhanced. Conclusion The variant docking poses of T2 and T4 might imply the novel recognition of inhibitory effects of T2 and T4, in comparison with Y101.