Validation of the Key Active Ingredients and Anti-Inflammatory and Analgesic Effects of Shenjin Huoxue Mixture Against Osteoarthritis by Integrating Network Pharmacology Approach and Thin-Layer Chromatography Analysis

• Published in: Drug design, development and therapy Vol. 14; pp. 1145 - 1156
• Main Authors: Yu, Mei-Xiang, Ma, Xiao-Qin, Song, Xin, Huang, Yong-Mei, Jiang, Hui-Ting, Wang, Jing, Yang, Wan-Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01.01.2020; Dove; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: active ingredients; Analgesics - analysis; Analgesics - therapeutic use; Anopheles; Anti-inflammatory agents; Anti-Inflammatory Agents - analysis; Anti-Inflammatory Agents - therapeutic use; Chromatography; Chromatography, Thin Layer; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug therapy; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - analysis; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - therapeutic use; High performance liquid chromatography; Humans; Inflammation; Liquid chromatography; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Molecular Docking Simulation; Molecular Structure; network pharmacology; Original Research; Osteoarthritis; Osteoarthritis - drug therapy; pharmacological mechanisms; Pharmacology; Protein Interaction Maps; Proteins; shenjin huoxue mixture; Structure-Activity Relationship; thin-layer chromatography; China; active ingredients; Shenjin Huoxue Mixture; network pharmacology; pharmacological mechanisms; osteoarthritis; thin-layer chromatography
• ISSN: 1177-8881; 1177-8881
• DOI: 10.2147/DDDT.S243951

Shenjin Huoxue Mixture (SHM), a classic traditional herb mixture has shown significant clinical efficacy against osteoarthritis (OA). Our previous experimental study has confirmed its anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect on acute soft tissue injury in rats, with the compound of glycyrrhizinate in SHM identified and the content of paeoniflorin in SHM determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). However, the components and its pharmacological mechanisms of SHM against OA have not been systematically elucidated yet. Thus this study aimed to predict the key active ingredients and potential pharmacological mechanisms of SHM in the treatment of OA by network pharmacology approach and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) validation. The active ingredients of SHM and their targets, as well as OA-related targets, were identified from databases. The key active ingredients were defined and ranked by the number of articles retrieved in PubMed using the keyword "(the active ingredients [Title/Abstract]) AND Osteoarthritis[Title/Abstract] ", and validated partially by TLC. The pharmacological mechanisms of SHM against OA were displayed by GO term and Reactome pathway enrichment analysis with Discovery Studio 3.0 software docking to testing the reliability. Finally, 16 key active ingredients were identified and ranked, including quercetin validated through TLC. Inflammatory response, IL-6 signaling pathway and toll-like receptor (TLR) cascades pathway were predicted as the main pharmacological mechanisms of SHM against OA. Especially, 12 out of 16 key active ingredients, including validated quercetin, were well docked to IL-6 proteins. Our results confirmed the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect of SHM against OA through multiple components, multiple targets and multiple pathways, which revealed the theoretical basis of SHM against OA and may provide a new drug option for treating OA.