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Journal of Medical Microbiology logo Journal of Medical Microbiology

Volume 70, Issue 7

Network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis on mechanisms of Tibetan Hongjingtian () in the treatment of COVID-19 Open Access

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease and ravages the world.

We proposed that might have potential value in the treatment of COVID-19 patients by regulating the immune response and inhibiting cytokine storm.

We aimed to explore the potential molecular mechanism for () against the immune regulation of COVID-19, and to provide a referenced candidate Tibetan herb () to overcome COVID-19.

Components and targets of were retrieved from the TCMSP database. GO analysis and Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment were built by R bioconductor package to explore the potential biological effects for targets of . The -compound-target network, target pathway network and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network were constructed using Cytoscape 3.3.0. Autodock 4.2 and Discovery Studio software were applied for molecular docking.

Four bioactive components (quercetin, kaempferol, kaempferol-3-O-α--rhamnoside and tamarixetin) and 159 potential targets of were identified from the TCMSP database. The result of GO annotation and KEGG-pathway-enrichment analyses showed that target genes of were associated with inflammatory response and immune-related signalling pathways, especially IL-17 signalling pathway, and TNF signalling pathway. Targets-pathway network and PPI network showed that IL-6, IL-1B and TNF-α were considered to be hub genes. Molecular docking showed that core compound (quercetin) had a certain affinity with IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α.

might play an anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory role in the cytokine storm of COVID-19.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): COVID-19 , cytokine storm , Hongjingtian (R. crenulata) , molecular docking and network pharmacology
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • the emergency research project on COVID-19 at Xizang Minzu University (Award XZMDYJ01)
    • Principle Award Recipient: LiWang
  • the emergency research project on COVID-19 at Xizang Minzu University (Award XZMDYJ03)
    • Principle Award Recipient: WangLi
  • the emergency research project on COVID-19 at Xizang Minzu University (Award XZMDYJ03)
    • Principle Award Recipient: JinTianbo
© 2021 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The Microbiology Society waived the open access fees for this article.
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2021-07-27
2025-01-24
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Network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis on mechanisms of Tibetan Hongjingtian (Rhodiola crenulata) in the treatment of COVID-19
J. Med. Microbiol. 70, 001374 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001374
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001374
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001374
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