Investigating the Biomarkers of the Sasang Constitution via Network Pharmacology Approach.

Won-Yung Lee,Choong-Yeol Lee,Chang-Eop Kim,Ji-Hwan Kim,Maria Grazia Ferraro

doi:10.1155/2021/6665130

Won-Yung Lee, Choong-Yeol Lee + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6665130

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Abstract

Sasang constitutional (SC) medicine classifies people into Soeum (SE), Soyang (SY), Taeeum (TE), and Taeyang (TY) types based on psychological and physical traits. However, biomarkers of these types are still unclear. We aimed to identify biomarkers among the SC types using network pharmacology methods. Target genes associated with the SC types were identified by grouping herb targets that preserve and strengthen the requisite energy (Bomyeongjiju). The herb targets were obtained by constructing an herb-compound-target network. We identified 371, 185, 146, and 89 target genes and their unique biological processes related to SE, SY, TE, and TY types, respectively. While the targets of SE and SY types were the most similar among the target pairs of the SC types, those of TY type overlapped with only a few other SC-type targets. Moreover, SE, SY, TE, and TY were related to “diseases of the digestive system,” “diseases of the nervous system,” “endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases,” and “congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal abnormalities,” respectively. We successfully identified the target genes, biological processes, and diseases related to each SC type. We also demonstrated that a drug-centric approach using network pharmacology analysis provides a deeper understanding of the concept of Sasang constitutional medicine at a phenotypic level.

Highlights

Introduction eSasang constitutional medicine (SCM) is a unique form of personalized medicine within traditional Korean medicine, which uses a constitutional typology for medical purposes
To investigate the biological correlates of the SC types, we first identified the list of herbs that preserve and strengthen the requisite energy for each SC type. is list of herbs was retrieved from Dongmuyugo or defined using herbal formulae
To identify the target genes related to the SC types, we constructed an herbcompound-target network for each herb using TCM-Mesh (Figure 2 and Supplementary Table 1). e network consisted of three types of nodes and two types of edges

Summary

Introduction

Introduction eSasang constitutional medicine (SCM) is a unique form of personalized medicine within traditional Korean medicine, which uses a constitutional typology for medical purposes. E liver-lung pair and spleen-kidney pair exhibit a functional symmetrical relationship similar to a seesaw. A hyperactive kidney and hypoactive spleen are traits unique to the Soeum (SE) type, and vice versa for the Soyang (SY) type. E combination of their functional deviations represents the characteristics of the four Sasang constitutional (SC) types [1]. A hyperactive liver and hypoactive lung are applicable to the Taeeum (TE) type, and vice versa for the Taeyang (TY) type. To identify those “inherent” characteristics, SCM experts categorize patients as one of the four SC types by comprehensively considering appearance, body shape, personality, and usual health status [2, 3]. Several studies have reported that chronic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, and metabolic syndrome exhibit an SC-type-specific susceptibility [4,5,6,7]. us, there may be controversy over the accuracy of the model, which classifies individual differences into four types according to the philosophical theory of a seesaw-like relationship, SCM can provide valuable experiences and helpful insights for improvement in personalized medicine, especially, in predicting prognosis and providing tailored interventions

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