Research on the mechanism of Angelicae dahurica in treating viral pneumonia based on network pharmacology

Abstract

Objective: Network pharmacology was used to investigate the mechanism of Angelica dahurica in the treatment of viral pneumonia. Methods: The active components and their targets of Angelica dahurica were searched in systematic pharmacology database and analysis platform of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and then the targets were converted to gene names in UniProt database. After that, the related targets of viral pneumonia were searched by GeneCards database. The application of Venny 2.1 database could construct the "active components key targets" network. Cytoscape 3.7.0 software was used to construct the " Angelica dahurica-active components-viral pneumonia-targets" interaction network. After acquiring four overlapping target genes, it is crucial to utilize the STRING database to get the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. The Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis of core target genes were performed by using R language software for the intersection of drug action targets and disease targets. Results: In total, six effective active components were obtained by searching, including beta-sitosterol, sitosterol, kaempferol, stigmasterol, luteolin and quercetin. The PPI network was made by taking the four key target proteins after intersection. The biological functions involved in GO enrichment analysis include maturation of proteins, response to oxygen levels, regulation of mitochondrial outer membrane permeability in apoptotic signaling pathways, and response to decreased oxygen levels, etc. The biological pathways and biological processes involved in KEGG incorporate Apoptosis - multiple species, Platinum drug resistance, p53 signaling pathway, and Toxoplasmosis, etc. Conclusions: These findings will provide insights into Angelicae dahurica treatment for viral pneumonia.