Abstract
Ziziphi Spinosae Semen (ZSS) is a common natural medicine used to treat insomnia, and to show clearly its method of action, we managed and did an in-depth discussion. Network pharmacology research is very suitable for the analysis of multiple components, multiple targets, and multiple pathways of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). According to the relevant theory, we first carefully collected and screened the active ingredients in ZSS and received 11 active ingredients that may work. The targets going along with these active components were also strongly related to insomnia targets, 108 common genes were identified, and drug-compound-gene symbol-disease visualization network and protein-protein interaction network were constructed. Forty-eight core genes were identified by PPI analysis and subjected to GO functional analysis with KEGG pathway analysis. The results of GO analysis pointed that there were 998 gene ontology items for the treatment of insomnia, including terms of 892 biological processes, 47 cellular components, and 59 molecular functions. It mainly shows the coupling effect and transport mode of some proteins in the biological pathways of ZSS in the treatment of insomnia and explains the mechanism of action through the connection between the target and the cell biomembrane. KEGG enrichment analyzed 19 signaling pathways, which were collectively classified into seven categories. We have identified the potential pathways of ZSS against insomnia and obtained the regulatory relationship between core genes and pathways and know that the same target can be regulated by multiple components at the same time. The results of molecular docking also prove this conclusion. We sought to provide a new analytical approach to explore TCM treatments for diseases using network pharmacology analysis tools.
Highlights
Insomnia refers to the symptoms of unable to get commonly and regular sleep or difficulty falling asleep, insufficient sleep time, lack of deep sleep, or even sleepless nights
Afterwards, we introduced these limiting parameters of oral bioavailability (OB) and drug-likeness (DL) according to the classical active ingredient screening rules [10], in which OB refers to the percentage of unmodified drugs that enter the circulatory system after oral administration and can effectively represent the availability of drugs, and OB ≥ 30% of compounds is considered as one of the screening rules for active ingredients [11]
Nine active ingredients that met the above conditions were obtained by screening according to the previous parameters of OB ≥ 30% and DL ≥ 0.18
Summary
Insomnia refers to the symptoms of unable to get commonly and regular sleep or difficulty falling asleep, insufficient sleep time, lack of deep sleep, or even sleepless nights. Ere are many links between insomnia and mental health, of which anxiety and depression may have a bidirectional effect with insomnia, and the problem can no longer be ignored by people [2]. General medicine-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia have limitations, and better alternatives have been searched for [1]. Such people are prone to dizziness and brain swelling, generalized weakness, explosive temper, and irritability in the morning, which have been very harmful to the body for a long time in the past. As an alternative to treating insomnia, Chinese medicine has achieved
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
