Systems Pharmacology-Based Method to Assess the Mechanism of Action of Weight-Loss Herbal Intervention Therapy for Obesity.

Wei Zhou,Ziyi Chen,Xiumin Li,Yonghua Wang,Xizhuo Sun,Aiping Lu,Zhigang Liu

doi:10.3389/fphar.2019.01165

Abstract

Obesity is a multi-factorial chronic disease that has become a serious, prevalent, and refractory public health challenge globally because of high rates of various complications. Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) as a functional food are considered to be a valuable and readily available resource for treating obesity because of their better therapeutic effects and reduced side effects. However, their “multi-compound” and “multi-target” features make it extremely difficult to interpret the potential mechanism underlying the anti-obesity effects of TCMs from a holistic perspective. An innovative systems-pharmacology approach was employed, which combined absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion screening and multiple target fishing, gene ontology enrichment analysis, network pharmacology, and pathway analysis to explore the potential therapeutic mechanism of weight-loss herbal intervention therapy in obesity and related diseases. The current study provides a promising approach to facilitate the development and discovery of new botanical drugs.

Highlights

Obesity is a multi-factor chronic disease involving an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in the body
Obesity is considered a metabolic disease characterized by an excess storage of body fat and has become a serious growing public health problem globally because of high rates of various complications including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, fatty liver, osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disease, inflammation, and cancer
These active compounds could bind to 111 target proteins involved in pathologic processes underlying obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, fatty liver, osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disease, inflammation, and cancer, suggesting that the herbs may exert pharmacological effects by regulating these targets

Summary

Introduction

Obesity is a multi-factor chronic disease involving an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in the body. Obesity has become one of the leading health risk factors worldwide because it can induce various complications, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, fatty liver, and certain types of cancer (Haslam and James, 2005; Poulain et al, 2006). The conventional therapeutic approaches for obesity are lifestyle changes, diet restriction, regular physical exercise, bariatric surgery, and pharmacological drugs (Li et al, 2015). Diet restriction, and regular physical exercise typically produce modest weight loss. Surgery is often considered for serious medical conditions, such as those with a high risk of obesity-related diseases and death (Shippey and Macedonia, 2003).

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Conclusion