Network pharmacology and bioinformatics study on the treatment of renal fibrosis with persicae semen-carthami flos drug pair

Abstract

To use network pharmacology and bioinformatics technology to reveal the mechanism of persicae semen-carthami flos drug pair in the treatment of renal fibrosis (RF). Compounds in traditional Chinese medicine were obtained through the Herb database. Appropriate compounds and corresponding drug targets were screened out based on the 5 rules of Lipinski and pharmacokinetics. Screening of suitable disease miRNAs by microarray chips in the GEO database. Find differentially expressed genes by analyzing miRNAs. Protein-protein interaction analysis and enrichment analysis of therapeutic targets were performed using String database and Omicshare platform. Molecular docking via the DockThor platform. A total of 28 drug compounds and 228 drug targets were screened in this study. A total of 9 miRNAs and 6649 disease targets were obtained by GEO2R software analysis. Finally, 97 therapeutic targets were obtained. A total of 1124 Gene Ontology enrichment analysis results were obtained. Therapeutic targets play multiple roles in biological processes, molecular functions, and cellular organization. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis showed that the persicae semen-carthami flos drug pair played a role in the treatment of RF mainly through calcium signaling pathway, pathways in cancer, cAMP signaling pathway, and other pathways. Molecular docking showed that the traditional Chinese medicine compounds had good binding ability to the target. Persicae semen and carthami flos play a role in the treatment of RF through multiple targets and multiple pathways. It provides ideas and references for follow-up research and new drug development.