Exploration in the Mechanism of Action of Licorice by Network Pharmacology - PubMed (original) (raw)

Exploration in the Mechanism of Action of Licorice by Network Pharmacology

Meimei Chen et al. Molecules. 2019.

Abstract

Licorice is a popular sweetener and a thirst quencher in many food products particularly in Europe and the Middle East and also one of the oldest and most frequently used herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. As a wide application of food additive, it is necessary to clarify bioactive chemical ingredients and the mechanism of action of licorice. In this study, a network pharmacology approach that integrated drug-likeness evaluation, structural similarity analysis, target identification, network analysis, and KEGG pathway analysis was established to elucidate the potential molecular mechanism of licorice. First, we collected and evaluated structural information of 282 compounds in licorice and found 181 compounds that met oral drug rules. Then, structural similarity analysis with known ligands of targets in the ChEMBL database (similarity threshold = 0.8) was applied to the initial target identification, which found 63 compounds in licorice had 86 multi-targets. Further, molecular docking was performed to study their binding modes and interactions, which screened out 49 targets. Finally, 17 enriched KEGG pathways (p < 0.01) of licorice were obtained, exhibiting a variety of biological activities. Overall, this study provided a feasible and accurate approach to explore the safe and effective application of licorice as a food additive and herb medicine.

Keywords: KEGG pathway analysis; food additive; licorice; network analysis; target identification.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

The compound-target network: the Arabic numeral round nodes referred to 63 compounds from licorice; the other nodes represent 49 targets. Color depth for ranking of top 20 hub nodes. The sequence of colors is red-orange-yellow from high ranking to low ranking.

Figure 2

Degree distribution between compounds and putative targets.

Figure 3

Pathway grouped network for the potential targets of licorice. Pathway grouped network for the potential targets of licorice with terms as nodes linked using ClueGO 2.3.5 analysis, where only the label of the most significant term per group is shown. The node size represents the term enrichment significance and the color of the node reflects the enrichment classification.

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Exploration in the Mechanism of Action of Licorice by Network Pharmacology - PubMed (original) (raw)