A network pharmacology approach to explore active compounds and pharmacological mechanisms of epimedium for treatment of premature ovarian insufficiency.

Abstract

Background and purposePremature ovarian insufficiency (POI) refers to a hypergonadotropic hypoestrogenism and the condition of pre-onset ovarian function failure. Epimedium is a common traditional Chinese herbal medicine that is widely used to relieve POI in China. To systematically explore the pharmacological mechanism of epimedium on POI therapy, a network pharmacology approach was conducted at the molecular level.MethodsIn this study, we adopt the network pharmacology method, which mainly includes active ingredients prescreening, target prediction, gene enrichment analysis and network analysis.ResultsThe network analysis revealed that 6 targets (ESR1, AR, ESR2, KDR, CYP19A1 and ESRRG) might be the therapeutic targets of epimedium on POI. In addition, gene-enrichment analysis suggested that epimedium appeared to play a role in POI by modulating 6 molecular functions, 5 cellular components, 15 biological processes and striking 52 potential targets involved in 13 signaling pathways.ConclusionThis study predicted the pharmacological and molecular mechanism of epimedium against POI from a holistic perspective, as well as provided a powerful tool for exploring pharmacological mechanisms and rational clinical application of traditional Chinese medicine.