Network pharmacology-based study of chinese herbal qixiong formula in treating oligoasthenospermia

Abstract

Objective: The objective is to study the network pharmacology of Qixiong formula (QXF) and explore the mechanism of QXF in the treatment of oligoasthenospermia. Materials and Methods: Using Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), a Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular mechANism of Traditional Chinese Medicine (BATMAN-traditional Chinese medicine), and an encyclopaedia of traditional Chinese medicine (ETCM) databases as well as data from relevant studies, the effective components and targets of QXF were obtained. Genes associated with oligospermia were screened using GeneCards, OMIM, DisGeNet, DrugBank, and GAD databases. The intersection target was obtained by mapping the target to the gene, and the protein interaction network was created using the STRING database to screen the core target of QXF in the treatment of oligospermia. The intersection target was enriched using gene ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis with the DAVID database. The network of the disease drug target pathway was drawn using Cytoscape software. Results: Overall, 536 active components of QXF and 40 core targets for the treatment of oligoasthenozoospermia were obtained. The analysis of GO and KEGG showed that QXF is mainly involved in oxidative stress, cell motility, nutritional response, and other biological processes. Through the regulation of FOXO, p53, PI3K/Akt, MAPK, mammalian target of rapamycin, Foxo, Wnt, and other signaling pathways, QXF played a role in the treatment of oligoasthenospermia. Conclusion: QXF has multi-component, multi-target, and multi-channel characteristics, providing a new way to study the mechanism of QXF in the treatment of oligoasthenospermia.