Mechanism of Cordyceps in Treating Bronchial Asthma and Chronic Renal Failure with Concept of”Same Treatment for Different Diseases” Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Technology
Objective: To explore the mechanism of Cordyceps in treating bronchial asthma and chronic renal failure with the concept of “same treatment for different diseases” in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) by network pharmacology and molecular docking technology. Method: The active components and potential targets of Cordyceps were collected from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP)and SwissTargetPrediction. The disease targets were obtained from Therapeutic Target Database(TTD), DrugBank, GeneCards and other databases. The common targets were obtained from the intersection of potential targets and disease targets. The protein-protein interaction(PPI)network was constructed by STRING11.5, and the ‘‘component-target-diseas’’ network of Cordyceps was established by Cytoscape 3.9.0. Gene Ontology(GO)and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)enrichment analyses were carried out by Metascape, and molecular docking was performed by Autodock 4.2. Result: Sixty common targets of disease and drug were screened out. The core targets mainly involved protein kinase B1 (Akt1), non-receptor tyrosine kinase, sarcoma virus protein(SRC), TP53, matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP-9), and prostaglandin endoperoxide synthase 2(PTGS2). The potential targets were mainly enriched in the signaling pathways of renin-angiotensin system(RAS), RAP1, phosphoinositide 3 kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), etc. Conclusion: The active components of Cordyceps inhibited inflammatory response and reduced fibrosis and cell apoptosis in a multi-target and multipathway manner. The findings of this study preliminarily revealed the potential targets and modern biological mechanism of Cordyceps in treating bronchial asthma and chronic renal failure with the concept of ‘‘same treatment for different diseases’’, and provided references for in-depth experimental verification and clinical application.
