Network Pharmacology-Based Prediction of the Active Ingredients and Potential Targets of Chinese Herbal Danyu Gukang Pills for Application to Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head Disease

Abstract Ethnopharmacological relevanceOsteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is still a challenge for orthopedists worldwide, which may lead to disability in patients without effective treatment. A newly developed formula of Chinese medicine, Danyu Gukang Pills (DGP), was recognized to be effective for ONFH. Nevertheless, its molecular mechanisms remain to be clarified. MethodsNetwork pharmacology was adopted to detect the mechanism of DGP on ONFH. The compounds of DGP were collected from the online databases, and active components were selected based on their OB and DL index. The potential proteins of DGP were acquired from TCMSP database, while the potential genes of ONFH were obtained from Gene Cards and Pubmed Gene databases. The function of Gene and potential pathways were researched by GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. The compounds-targets and targets-pathways network were constructed in an R and Cytosacpe software. The mechanism was further investigated via molecular docking. Finally, in-vitro experiments were validated in the BMSCs. ResultsA total of 2305 compounds in DGP were gained, among which, 370 were selected as active components for which conforming to criteria. Combined the network analysis, molecular docking and in-vitro experiments, the results firstly demonstrated that the treatment effect of DGP on ONFH may be closely related to HIF-1α, VEGFA and HIF-1 signaling pathway. ConclusionThe current study firstly researched the molecular mechanism of DGP on ONFH based on network pharmacology. The results indicated that DGP may exert the effect on ONFH targeting on HIF-1α and VEGFA via HIF-1 signaling pathway.