Network pharmacology prediction and molecular docking-based strategy to explore the potential mechanism of Duhuo-Jisheng pair against osteoarthritis

The Duhuo-Jisheng pair is the ruling herb in Duhuo Jisheng decoction, which is a classic formula first recorded in the preparedness and urgency of the thousand jewels.

We obtained the primary constituents of Duhuo-Jisheng and their associated protein targets from the TCMSP database. We constructed a composite target network using Cytoscape 3.9.1. To identify potential targets for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA), we retrieved disease targets from OMIM and GeneCards databases and compared them with the composite targets. We imported the overlapping targets into the STRING database to construct a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. We also conducted Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG enrichment analyses on the targets.

The component target network consisted of numerous nodes and edges. Notably, quercetin, ammidin, and β-sitosterol were identified as the compounds with high degrees. The PPI network identified tumour necrosis factor (TNF), TP53, and NOS2 as proteins with high degrees. The results of GO and KEGG analyses revealed that the signalling pathways used by DHQJD to treat OA included the NF-κB, PI3K-AKT, and TNF pathways.

Our study provides insights into the effective components and potential molecular mechanisms of Duhuo-Jisheng in treating OA, thus serving as a reference for further basic research in this field.