Open Access

ARTICLE

Exploration of the oxidative-inflammatory potential targets of Coicis Semen in osteoarthritis: Data mining and systematic pharmacology

by QIAO ZHOU^2,3,4, JIAN LIU^1,2,*, LING XIN¹, YANYAN FANG^1,2, LEI WAN^1,2, DAN HUANG^1,2, JIANTING WEN^1,2

1 Department of Rheumatism Immunity, The First Affiliated Hospital, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230031, China
2 Institute of Rheumatism Prevention and Treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China
3 Graduate School, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230012, China
4 Department of Rheumatism Immunity, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230061, China

* Corresponding Author: Jian Liu,

BIOCELL 2023, 47(7), 1623-1643. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2023.028331

Received 14 December 2022; Accepted 20 March 2023; Issue published 21 June 2023

Abstract

Objective: On the basis of data mining, systematic pharmacology, molecular docking, and experiment validation, the oxidative-inflammatory molecular targets of Coicis Semen in the therapy of osteoarthritis (OA) were explored. Methods: The association rule analysis was effectively applied to highlight the correlation between Coicis Semen and oxidative inflammation indices. The random walk model was subsequently used to evaluate the clinical efficacy of Coicis Semen. Network pharmacology was used to predict network targets. The binding affinity of the active ingredient in Coicis Semen to the key target of OA was also successfully predicted. Results: Coicis Semen showed a significant reduction in oxidative-inflammatory indicators of OA. A total of 108 promising targets were predicted for the 24 bioactive compounds in Coicis Semen. Eight target genes were considered core target genes. The enrichment analysis predicts that Coicis Semen may activate the interleukin (IL)-17, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) signaling pathways. Molecular docking demonstrated that stigmasterol, 2-monoolein, sitosterol, and sitosterol alpha1 had free binding energies to oxidative and inflammatory targets (MAPK1, Estrogen Receptor 1 [ESR1], and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Alpha [PPARA]). Both clinical trials and in vitro cell experiments revealed that Coicis Semen could increase ESR1 and PPAR-α levels while decreasing MAPK1 levels. Conclusions: Coicis Semen has a remarkable anti-OA effect. Precisely, the major components of Coicis Semen, including stigmasterol, sitosterol alpha1, sitosterol, and 2-monoolein, specifically inhibit MAPK1, ESR1, and PPARA to reduce the inflammatory response and oxidative damage in OA.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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