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Study on the mechanism of action of Phellodendron amurense in treating spinal cord injury based on network pharmacology

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DOI: 10.23977/medsc.2025.060104 | Downloads: 19 | Views: 612

Author(s)

Xi Zhou 1, Paikun Cheng 2, Xin Chen 3

Affiliation(s)

1 Nanchong Central Hospital/The Second Clinical Medical College of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China
2 Ziyang Environmental Science and Technology Vocational College, Ziyang, China
3 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China

Corresponding Author

Xin Chen

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanism of action of Phellodendron amurense in treating spinal cord injury based on network pharmacology. The method of this study was to obtain the main active ingredients and target genes of Phellodendron amurense from the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), and standardize the gene names through the Uniport database. The four databases of OMIM, GeneCards, DrugBank and PharmGkb were used to identify the disease genes of spinal cord injury. The target genes of drug active ingredients and the disease genes of spinal cord injury were intersected by the online tool of Venn diagram to determine the potential therapeutic targets of Phellodendron amurense against spinal cord injury. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of potential therapeutic targets was obtained through the STRING database, and the PPI network diagram was topologically analyzed by the CytoNCA plug-in in the Cytoscape software to select the core key targets. The biological information annotation database DAVID was used to perform GO analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on the potential therapeutic targets, and the visualization was performed by R language. The results showed that a total of 37 effective active ingredients and 511 effective active ingredient targets of Phellodendron amurense were screened. A total of 6753 targets for spinal cord injury and 157 drug-disease intersection targets were screened. Quercetin (MOL000098), isoberberine (MOL000790), (S)-hydroberberine (MOL001455), β-sitosterol (MOL000358) and other compounds were the main active ingredients, and TP53, TNF, ESR1, AKT1, IL6, MAPK1, HSP90AA1, RELA, IL1B, MYC, CCND1, and BCL2 were the main action targets. GO analysis showed that the biological processes involved in Phellodendron amurense mainly involved responses to xenobiotic stimulation, responses to bacterial-derived molecules, responses to lipopolysaccharides, and responses to nutritional levels. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis found that Phellodendron amurense plays a role in the treatment of spinal cord injury involving AGE-RAGE signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, etc. The study concluded that Phellodendron amurense has the characteristics of multi-target and multi-pathway effects in the treatment of spinal cord injury, and it may intervene in the spinal cord injury process by promoting neuronal survival, promoting axonal regeneration, inhibiting neuronal apoptosis, and anti-inflammatory processes.

KEYWORDS

Network pharmacology, Spinal cord injury, Mechanism, Phellodendron amurense

CITE THIS PAPER

Xi Zhou, Paikun Cheng, Xin Chen. Study on the mechanism of action of Phellodendron amurense in treating spinal cord injury based on network pharmacology. MEDS Clinical Medicine (2025) Vol. 6: 18-26. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/medsc.2025.060104.

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