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BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies 1/2020

01-12-2020 | Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease | Research article

Herbal pair Huangqin-Baishao: mechanisms underlying inflammatory bowel disease by combined system pharmacology and cell experiment approach

Authors: Xiaoqi Huang, Zhiwei Chen, Minyao Li, Yaomin Zhang, Shijie Xu, Haiyang Huang, Xiaoli Wu, Xuebao Zheng

Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies | Issue 1/2020

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Abstract

Background

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a severe digestive system condition, characterized by chronic and relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Huangqin, HQ) and Paeonia lactiflora Pall (Baishao, BS) from a typical herbal synergic pair in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for IBD treatments. However, the mechanisms of action for the synergy are still unclear. Therefore, this paper aimed to predict the anti-IBD targets and the main active ingredients of the HQ-BS herbal pair.

Methods

A systems pharmacology approach was used to identify the bioactive compounds and to delineate the molecular targets and potential pathways of HQ-BS herbal pair. Then, the characteristics of the candidates were analyzed according to their oral bioavailability and drug-likeness indices. Finally, gene enrichment analysis with DAVID Bioinformatics Resources was performed to identify the potential pathways associated with the candidate targets.

Results

The results showed that, a total of 38 active compounds were obtained from HQ-BS herbal pair, and 54 targets associated with IBD were identified. Gene Ontology and pathway enrichment analysis yielded the top 20 significant results with 54 targets. Furthermore, the integrated IBD pathway revealed that the HQ-BS herbal pair probably acted in patients with IBD through multiple mechanisms of regulation of the nitric oxide biosynthetic process and anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, cell experiments were carried out to verify that the HQ-BS herbal pair and their Q-markers could attenuate the levels of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated THP-1-derived macrophage inflammation. In particular, the crude materials exerted a much better anti-inflammatory effect than their Q-markers, which might be due to their synergistic effect.

Conclusion

This study provides novel insight into the molecular pathways involved in the mechanisms of the HQ-BS herbal pair acting on IBD.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Herbal pair Huangqin-Baishao: mechanisms underlying inflammatory bowel disease by combined system pharmacology and cell experiment approach
Authors
Xiaoqi Huang
Zhiwei Chen
Minyao Li
Yaomin Zhang
Shijie Xu
Haiyang Huang
Xiaoli Wu
Xuebao Zheng
Publication date
01-12-2020
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 2662-7671
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-020-03068-2

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