Mechanism of action of Xijiao Dihuang decoction in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus
HU Guobing
SONG Na
YANG Jingjing
SUN Wanjing
ZHU Furong
Abstract：Objective To explore the potential mechanism of Xijiao Dihuang decoction in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE)based on network pharmacology and molecular docking technology,and to provide a theoreti-cal basis for multi-target intervention and drug research in SLE.Methods The active ingredients and related target genes of Xijiao Dihuang decoction were screened by the TCMSP and BATMAN-TCM databases,and the target genes of SLE-related diseases were screened by the Genecards database.We took the intersection of the target genes of active ingre-dients in Xijiao Dihuang decoction and SLE-related target genes,and utilized the STRING database to construct a protein-protein interaction(PPI)network to screen for core target genes of Xijiao Dihuang decoction in the treatment of SLE.Us-ing the Metascape database,we conducted Gene Ontology(GO)functional enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)pathway enrichment analysis on the core target genes,and evaluated the binding activity of the main active ingredients of Xijiao Dihuang decoction with the core target genes through molecular docking technology.Results A total of 49 active ingredients of Xijiao Dihuang decoction and 239 target genes were screened out,and after in-tersecting with 787 target genes related to SLE,57 target genes for the treatment of SLE with Xijiao Dihuang decoction were obtained.The results of the PPI network analysis indicated that albumin(ALB),protein kinase B(AKT1),epider-mal growth factor receptor(EGFR),insulin-like growth factor 1(IGF1),caspase-3(CASP3),and estrogen receptor 1(ESR1)were the core target genes.GO functional enrichment analysis showed that these target genes were mainly involved in biological processes such as regulation of MAP kinase activity,muscle cell proliferation,positive regulation of serine/threonine kinase activity,and negative regulation of external stimuli response.The enrichment results of KEGG pathway showed that a total of 123 pathways were enriched,mainly in PI3K-AKT,MAPK,prostate cancer,lipid and atherosclero-sis,Ras,Foxo,Th17 cell differentiation,advanced glycation end product(AGE)-receptor for AGE(AGE-RAGE)in dia-betic complications,EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance and other pathways.The results of molecular docking showed that active ingredients such as paeoniflorin and benzoylpaeoniflorin exhibited favorable binding affinity towards tar-get genes such as ALB,CASP3,EGFR,and ESR1.Conclusion The active ingredients in Xijiao Dihuang decoction,such as paeoniflorin,benzoylpaeoniflorin,isobenzoylpaeoniflorin,quercetin,and campesterol,can play a role in the treat-ment of SLE by regulating the core target genes ALB,AKT1,EGFR,IGF1,CASP3 and ESR1 in signaling pathways such as PI3K-AKT,MAPK,FoxO,Th17 cell differentiation and AGE-RAGE,thereby synergistically regulating immune imbal-ance,inhibiting inflammatory responses and reducing oxidative stress.
Keywords：Xijiao Dihuang decoctionsystemic lupus erythematosusnetwork pharmacologymolecular docking technology
Publication Date：2025-10-25
Online Publishing Date：2025-11-20(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 34-39 )