• Kai Sun, Li-Guo Zhu, Xu Wei, Ping Zhang, Jia-Wen Zhan, Yuan Wang, and He Yin.
• Wangjing Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Beijing 100102, China Beijing Key Laboratory of Orthopedics of Traditional Chinese Medicine Beijing 100007, China.
• Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2020 Feb 1; 45 (3): 609-616.

AbstractThe aim of this paper was to investigate the key targets and mechanism of "Epimedii Folium-Paeoniae Radix Alba" in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation by means of network pharmacology. The currently recognized databases and analysis software at home and abroad were used to construct the network from drugs and diseases. The chemical components of Epimedii Folium and Paeo-niae Radix Alba were collected by using databases such as TCMSP, while their active components were determined and the action targets were predicted according to threshold screening and literature reports. The genes for lumbar disc herniation were collected by using GeneCards, OMIM, and DisGeNET databases. The drug targets were mapped to disease targets, and protein interaction network analysis for key targets, GO function enrichment analysis and KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analysis were performed. Finally, 23 active components of Epimedium Folium and 13 active components of Paeoniae Radix Alba were determined, and a total of 624 drug targets were obtained. After standardization, 214 drug targets were obtained. In addition, 306, 2 and 5 related targets of lumbar disc herniation were collected from GeneCards, OMIM, and DisGeNET database, respectively, and a total of 293 disease targets were obtained after deduplication. After the mapping of drug target and disease target, 44 common targets were obtained. PPI protein interaction network analysis showed that IL-6, TNF, AKT1, MAPK1, and VEGFA may be the core targets for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. GO enrichment analysis identified 56 items(P<0.05), among which biological processes mainly included immune response, apoptosis, etc.; cell components mainly included extracellular space, extracellular region, etc.; molecular functions mainly included cytokine activity, metallopeptidase activity and so on. Through KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, 91 signaling pathways related to inflammation, metabolism, and senescence were identified, mainly including IL-17 signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway and so on. "Epimedii Folium-Paeoniae Radix Alba" showed the characteristics of multi-channel and multi-target for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. This study preliminarily explored the key targets for its role and the biological processes and signaling pathways involved. It was found that it may play a therapeutic role by affecting inflammation and immune regulation, which laid the foundation for further experimental verification.

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