Abstract
Objective To elucidate the pharmacological mechanisms of Qubi Formula (QBF), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula which has been demonstrated as an effective therapy for psoriasis in China. Methods The Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database, BATMAN-TCM database, and literature search were used to excavate the pharmacologically active ingredients of QBF and to predict the potential targets. Psoriasis-related targets were obtained from Therapeutic Target Database (TTD), DrugBank database (DBD), MalaCards database, and DisGeNET database. Then, we established the network concerning the interactions of potential targets of QBF with well-known psoriasis-related targets by using protein-protein interaction (PPI) data in String database. Afterwards, topological parameters (including DNMC, Degree, Closeness, and Betweenness) were calculated to excavate the core targets of Qubi Formula in treating psoriasis (main targets in the PPI network). Cytoscape was used to construct the ingredients-targets core network for Qubi Formula in treating psoriasis, and ClueGO was used to perform GO-BP and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on these core targets. Results The ingredient-target-disease core network of QBF in treating psoriasis was screened to contain 175 active ingredients, which corresponded to 27 core targets. Additionally, enrichment analysis suggested that targets of QBF in treating psoriasis were mainly clustered into multiple biological processes (associated with nuclear translocation of proteins, cellular response to multiple stimuli (immunoinflammatory factors, oxidative stress, and nutrient substance), lymphocyte activation, regulation of cyclase activity, cell-cell adhesion, and cell death) and related pathways (VEGF, JAK-STAT, TLRs, NF-κB, and lymphocyte differentiation-related pathways), indicating the underlying mechanisms of QBF on psoriasis. Conclusion In this work, we have successfully illuminated that Qubi Formula could relieve a wide variety of pathological factors (such as inflammatory infiltration and abnormal angiogenesis) of psoriasis in a “multicompound, multitarget, and multipathway” manner by using network pharmacology. Moreover, our present outcomes might shed light on the further clinical application of QBF on psoriasis treatment.
Highlights
Psoriasis is a common and frequently occurring disease in dermatology, which is characterized by easy diagnosis and difficult treatment, as well as recurrent disease course [1]
Screening of Potential Pharmacologically Active Ingredients and eir Targets of Qubi Formula. e search through the BATMAN-Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) database revealed a total of 572 compounds of QBF
oral bioavailability (OB) ≥ 30% and DL ≥ 0.18 were used as the screening conditions. en, a total of 202 possible compounds with proper values of above two parameters were collected for potential pharmacologically active ingredients from the herbal constituents of QBF
Summary
Psoriasis is a common and frequently occurring disease in dermatology, which is characterized by easy diagnosis and difficult treatment, as well as recurrent disease course [1]. E pathogenesis of psoriasis is still not completely clarified. Present studies have suggested that autoimmune disorders, dysfunction in various inflammatory signal transduction pathways, abnormal expression of psoriatic susceptibility gene, and obesity might be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. E unknown pathogenesis has brought difficulties to the treatment, without curative approaches against psoriasis at present. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has unique advantages in treating psoriasis, which can play therapeutic roles through multiple targets and multiple pathways, corresponding to the dysfunction of various pathways. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine underlying the pathogenesis of psoriasis [10,11,12,13]. Due to the unclear component entering the blood through the compound TCM, the mechanism of action is not completely clear, which restricts the further standardization and internationalization of TCM for psoriasis
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