Network Pharmacology Approach to Investigate the Preventive Mechanism of Hunan Expert Group Recommended Chinese Medicine Prevention No.2 Prescription Against COVID-19

Objective To explore the possible preventive mechanism of Hunan expert group recommended Chinese medicine prescription of No.2(Pre-No.2)against coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)by network pharmacology method.Methods The target proteins of effective components and active compounds in Pre-No.2 were screened by searching the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP).A component-target-disease interaction network of Pre-No.2 was constructed by Cytoscape 3.7.2,gene ontology(GO)analysis,and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG)analysis of target protein pathway by DAVID.Results A total of 163 compounds and 278 target protein targets in Pre-No.2 were collected from the TCMSP database.Kaempferol,wogonin,7-methoxy-2-methyl isoflavone,formononetin,isorhamnetin,and licochalcone A were the most frequent targets in the regulatory network.GO enrichment analysis showed that Pre-No.2 regulated response to virus,viral processes,humoral immune responses,defense responses to virus and viral entry into host cells.KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the formula regulated the NF-κB signaling pathway,B cell receptor signaling pathway,viral carcinogenesis,T cell signaling pathway and FcγR-mediated phagocytosis signaling pathway.Conclusions Pre-No.2 may play a preventive role against COVID-19 through regulation of the Toll-like signaling,T cell signaling,B cell signaling and other signaling pathways.It may regulate the immune system to protect against anti-influenza virus.

Systematic Pharmacological Strategies to Explore the Regulatory Mechanism of Ma Xing Shi Gan Decoction on COVID-19

Objective To use systematic pharmacological strategies to explore the regulatory mechanisms of Ma Xing Shi Gan Decoction(MXSGD)against the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).Methods Data on the compounds and targets of MXSGD were collected from the Traditional Chinese Medicene Systems Parmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP)and TCM Databases@Taiwan.Data on ACE2-related targets and the protein-protein interaction(PPI)were collected from the String database.The Cytoscape 3.7.2 was used to construct and analyze the networks.The DAVID platform was used for Gene Ontology(GO)and pathway enrichment analyses.Results Data on 272 MXSGD targets and 21 SARS-CoV-2 potential targets were collected.Four networks were constructed and analyzed based on the data:(1)compound-target network of MXSGD;(2)MXSGD-SARS-CoV-2-PPI network;(3)cluster of MXSGD-SARS-CoV-2-PPI network;(4)Herb-Pathway-Target network.The core targets included AKT1,MAPK3,IL-6,TP53,VEGFA,TNF,CASP3,EGFR,EGF and MAPK1.The antiviral biological processes were inflammatory responses(inflammatory cells,inflammatory cytokines and their signaling pathways),immune responses(T cells,monocytes,B cells and other immune cells),immune factors(IFN-γ,TNF-αand so on),virus defense,humoral immunity and mucosal innate immune response.The antivirus-related signaling pathways included TNF,NOD-like receptor,FoxO,PI3K-AKT and Toll-like receptor signaling pathways.Conclusions MXSGD can control disease progression by regulating multiple compounds and targets;it can reduce inflammation and balance immunity by regulating several proteins that interact with ACE2 and signaling pathways closely related to disease development.

Network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis on molecular targets and mechanism prediction of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction in the treatment of COVID-19

Objective To investigate and predict the molecular targets and mechanism of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction(黄连解毒汤,HLJDD)in the treatment of Corona Virus Disease 2019(COV-ID-19)through network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis.Methods The chemical constituents and action targets of HLJDD were retrieved on Tradi-tional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP),SymMap v2,Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine(ETCM),a High-throughput Ex-periment-and Reference-guided Database of Traditional Chinese Medicine(HERB),and Tra-ditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Database(TCMID).UniProt and GeneCards were used to query the target genes that corresponding to the active compounds,and then a compound-target network was constructed using Cytoscape 3.7.2.Gene Ontology(GO)database was used to annotate GO functions.Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)was used to predict the possible mechanisms of active compounds.The Database for Annotation,Visu-alization and Integrated Discovery(DAVID)was used to analysis the tissue enrichment.The main active compounds in HLJDD are molecularly docked with their corresponding related targets.Results Seventy-six compounds were screened and 458 corresponding targets in the network were obtained.Gene annotation showed that the targets were involved mainly in 1953 biolo-gical processes.884 signaling pathways was enriched,involving signaling by interleukins,cy-tokine signaling in immune system,generic transcription pathway,and RNA polymerase II transcription.The targets mainly distributed in the lung,liver,and placenta,involving a vari-ety of immune cells,such as T cells and B cells.The molecular docking results showed that core compounds such as wogonin,berberine,and baicalein had high affinity with tumor nec-rosis factor(TNF),insulin(INS),and tumor protein 53(TP53).Conclusion The active compounds in HLJDD may have a therapeutic effect on COVID-19 through regulating multiple signal pathways by targeting genes such as vascular endothelial growth factor A(VEGFA),INS,interleukin-6(IL-6),TNF,caspase-3,TP53,and mitogen-activ-ated protein kinase 3(MAPK3).