Study on the Mechanism of Paeoniflorin Against Atherosclerosis Through Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

Abstract

This study explored the mechanism of paeoniflorin (PF) against atherosclerosis (AS) at the molecular level using network pharmacology and molecular docking. The targets of PF and disease targets related to AS were obtained through literature mining and database search, the PPI network diagram was drawn, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed, and the PF structure was docked with core target. In the results, 130 common target proteins of PF and AS were obtained. GO enrichment analysis found 1071 items related to biological processes, mainly related to metabolism, protein modification, regulation of cell activity, regulation of macromolecule synthesis, etc. There were 107 items related to molecular functions, mainly related to cyclic compounds, ions, nucleotides, and ribose Combine etc. KEGG analysis revealed 79 pathways, mainly Pathways in cancer, PI3K-Akt signalling pathway, Proteoglycans in cancer, Ras signalling pathway, FoxO signalling pathway, etc. The molecular docking results showed that PF had good binding activity with the screened target. In conclusion, this study indicated that PF treatment of AS involves multiple direct or indirect targets and signal pathways, providing a reference for further research on the mechanism of PF treatment of AS.