3.1. The effective ingredients and targets of YGY
Through the retrieval of literature and databases, the effective ingredients and relevant targets of YGY were selected, including 100 effective ingredients of RG, 64 effective ingredients of FZ, 74 effective ingredients of SD, 16 effective ingredients of SZY, 42 effective ingredients of GQZ, 16 effective ingredients of SY, 443 targets of RG, 570 targets of FZ, 526 targets of SD, 70 targets of SZY, 208 targets of GQZ, and 80 targets of SY.
3.2. The relevant targets of OP and the intersection targets of YGY and OP
273 relevant targets of OP were collected from TTD and OMIM with the keyword "osteoporosis". After the construction of the Venn diagram (Fig. 2), 17 intersection targets of YGY and OP were selected as the potential targets of YGY in the treatment of OP.
3.3. The Chinese medicine-compound-OP-target network
The relationships of the intersection targets, the effective ingredients and Chinese medicinal materials was imported into Cytoscape 3.6.0 software to construct the Chinese medicine-compound-OP-target network (Fig. 3). In this network, 42 ingredients from 6 Chinese medicines were able to act on 17 targets, which reflected the characteristics of Chinese medicine compound as multi-component and multi-target. The result of network characteristics analysis showed that the effective ingredients with higher degree were mainly distributed in RG, FZ and SD, including FZ6 (denudatine), FZ2 (2,7-dideacetyl-2,7-dibenzoyl-taxayunnanine F), RG9 (α-humulene), RG15 (palmitic acid), A1 (quercetin) and SD9 (aucubin); while the targets with higher degree mainly included CASP3, CNR2, ESR1, TNF and so on. The effective ingredients and targets with top 10 degree were shown in Table 1 and Table 2, which could be used as the basis for screening core effective ingredients and core targets.
Table 1
The effective ingredients with top 10 drgee in the Chinese medicine-compound-OP-target network
Serial number
|
Compound name
|
Degree
|
Source
|
A1
|
Quercetin
|
7
|
SD, RG, GQZ
|
SD9
|
Aucubin
|
2
|
SD
|
RG15
|
Palmitic acid
|
2
|
RG
|
RG9
|
Alpha-humulene
|
2
|
RG
|
FZ6
|
Denudatine
|
2
|
FZ
|
FZ2
|
2,7-Dideacetyl−2,7-dibenzoyl-Taxayunnanine F
|
2
|
FZ
|
B1
|
Beta-sitosterol
|
1
|
GQZ, SZY
|
SY2
|
hancinone C
|
1
|
SY
|
SY1
|
Garcinone-B
|
1
|
SY
|
SD13
|
Uridine
|
1
|
SD
|
Table 2
The targets with top 10 drgee in the Chinese medicine-compound-OP-target network
Gene symbol
|
Target name
|
Degree
|
CASP3
|
Caspase-3
|
9
|
CNR2
|
Cannabinoid receptor 2
|
7
|
ESR1
|
Estrogen receptor
|
7
|
TNF
|
Tumor necrosis factor
|
5
|
TERT
|
Telomerase reverse transcriptase
|
5
|
CTSK
|
Cathepsin K
|
5
|
IL6
|
Interleukin-6
|
3
|
COL1A1
|
Collagen alpha-1(I) chain
|
3
|
IL1B
|
Interleukin-1 beta
|
2
|
ALOX15
|
Polyunsaturated fatty acid lipoxygenase ALOX15
|
2
|
3.4. The PPI network
The results of protein interaction relationship obtained from the STRING database was imported into Cytoscape 3.6.0 software to construct the PPI network (Fig. 4). This network showed the interaction of 16 targets, and the depth of the color indicated the degree of each target and the strength of the interaction.. The result of network characteristics analysis showed that the targets with higher degree including IL-6, TNF, IL-1β, SPP1 and CASP3 may play an important role in the treatment of OP by YGY. The targets with top 10 degree were shown in Table 3, which could be used as the basis for screening core targets.
Table 3
The targets with top 10 drgee in PPI network
Gene symbol
|
Target name
|
Degree
|
IL6
|
Interleukin−6
|
14
|
TNF
|
Tumor necrosis factor
|
12
|
IL1B
|
Interleukin−1 beta
|
12
|
SPP1
|
Osteopontin
|
10
|
CASP3
|
Caspase−3
|
10
|
ESR1
|
Estrogen receptor
|
9
|
RUNX2
|
Runt-related transcription factor 2
|
8
|
IL4
|
Interleukin−4
|
8
|
NFKB1
|
Nuclear factor NF-kappa-B p105 subunit
|
7
|
COL1A1
|
Collagen alpha−1(I) chain
|
7
|
3.5. GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis
17 intersection targets were imported into the Metascape database for GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. There are 482 biological processes, 11 cell components, 10 molecular functions and 54 signal pathways involved in 17 intersection targets. Obviously, YGY exerts its therapeutic effects by affecting multiple biological functions and multiple signal pathways. The top 10 biological processes, cell components and molecular functions, and the top 20 signal pathways were screened out based on the logP value. Additionally, the results were represented in the form of bar chart (Fig. 5) and bubble chart (Fig. 6).
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that the biological processes involved in the intersection target mainly included negative regulation of post-transcriptional gene silencing, regulation of inflammatory response, positive regulation of cytokine biosynthetic process, regulation of monooxygenase activity, regulation of hormone levels and ossification; the cell components involved mainly included side of membrane, cytoplasmic side of plasma membrane, extrinsic component of plasma membrane, dendrite and neuronal cell body; the molecular functions involved mainly included cytokine receptor binding, cytokine activity, receptor ligand activity, receptor regulator activity and growth factor receptor binding.
As shown in Fig. 6, the signal pathways involved in the intersection targets mainly included IL-17 signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, osteoclast differentiation, MAPK signaling pathway, apoptosis, PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway.
Based on the targets enriched in the top 20 signal pathways, Cytoscape 3.6.0 software was used to construct the intersection target-signal pathway network (Fig. 7). According to the results of network characteristics analysis, the targets with high degree value including NF-kB, IL-6, IL-1β, TNF and CASP3 may be the key factors of YGY in the treatment of OP. The targets with top 10 degree were shown in Table 4, which could be used as the basis for screening core targets.
Table 4
The targets with top 10 drgee in the intersection target-signal pathway network
Gene symbol
|
Target name
|
Degree
|
NFKB1
|
Nuclear factor NF-kappa-B p105 subunit
|
18
|
IL6
|
Interleukin-6
|
17
|
IL1B
|
Interleukin-1 beta
|
17
|
TNF
|
Tumor necrosis factor
|
16
|
CASP3
|
Caspase-3
|
11
|
IL4
|
Interleukin-4
|
8
|
CTSK
|
Cathepsin K
|
4
|
PPP3CA
|
Serine/threonine-protein phosphatase 2B catalytic subunit alpha isoform
|
4
|
COL1A1
|
Collagen alpha-1(I) chain
|
2
|
SPP1
|
Osteopontin
|
2
|
3.5. Molecular docking
Based on Table 1 and relevant literature [21–23], 14 core effective ingredients were determined (Table 5). Considering the ranking of each target in Table 2, Table 3, and Table 4, the following core targets were screened out: TNF, CASP3, CTSK, IL-1β, NF-kB and IL-6. The docking results of the core effective ingredients and the core targets were shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9. As shown in the docking results, α-humulene, cinnamaldehyde and denudatine were able to bind tightly to all core targets with the binding energy less than − 7.00. Meanwhile, the binding energy between IL-1β and 14 core effective ingredients were all less than − 5.00. Most of the effective ingredients showed good binding activity to the core targets, which validated the therapeutic effect of YGY on OP.
Table 5
Information of core effective ingredients
Serial number
|
Compound name
|
Source
|
A1
|
Quercetin
|
SD, RG, GQZ
|
SD9
|
Aucubin
|
SD
|
RG15
|
Palmitic acid
|
RG
|
RG9
|
Alpha-humulene
|
RG
|
FZ6
|
Denudatine
|
FZ
|
FZ2
|
2,7-Dideacetyl-2,7-dibenzoyl-Taxayunnanine F
|
FZ
|
N/A
|
Benzoylaconine
|
FZ
|
N/A
|
Benzoylmesaconine
|
FZ
|
N/A
|
Benzoylhypaconine
|
FZ
|
N/A
|
Aconitine
|
FZ
|
N/A
|
Mesaconitine
|
FZ
|
N/A
|
Hypaconitine
|
FZ
|
N/A
|
Cinnamaldehyde
|
RG
|
N/A
|
Catalpol
|
SD
|