A Network Pharmacology Study on the Qiju Dihuang Pills for Treatment of Dry Eye Disease

Abstract BackgroundDry eye disease(DED) is a multifactorial disease of the tears and ocular surface that results in symptoms of discomfort, visual disturbance, and tear film instability with potential damage to the ocular surface. DED has a higher incidence in old age and is seen predominantly in females worldwide. Treatments that replenish deficient tears include artificial tears, gels and ointments in mild to moderate disease. Qiju Dihuang Pills is a typical herb decoction applied to the treatment of ocular disease. This study is to identify potentially active compounds and the underlying mechanisms of Qiju Dihuang Pills in the treatment of DED.MethodCompounds in Qiju Dihuang Pills were collected from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP) online databases and then screened by bioavailability and drug likeness parameters. Related targets of DED obtained from GeneCards database, thereby obtaining the targets of Qiju Dihuang Pills against DED. DED-related genes were conducted for Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks of the genes were constructed using Cytoscape software.ResultIn total, 121compounds from Qiju Dihuang Pills were screened out with 219 putative target genes. Hence, 219 potential target genes of Qiju Dihuang Pills were selected for further study. After overlap analysis of the 219 genes of Qiju Dihuang Pills and 3533 DED-associated genes, we finally achieved 162 Qiju Dihuang Pills-DED target genes. Network analysis indicated that main targets of main active components of Qiju Dihuang Pills were target genes such as Proline-rich AKT1 substrate 1 (AKT1), interleukin 6(IL-6), Mitogen-activated protein kinase 3(MAPK3), Vascular endothelial growth factor A(VEGFA), and Caspase-3(CASP3), which are involved in the regulation of cancer pathway, Tumor necrosis factor(TNF) signal pathway, hepatitis B pathway, The interleukin 17(IL-17) signaling pathway and so forth. ConclusionOur data provide deep understanding of the pharmacological mechanisms of Qiju Dihuang Pills in attenuating dry eye syndrome. The discovery shed new light on the development of active compounds of Qiju Dihuang Pills for the treatment of DED. Qiju Dihuang Pills alleviated dry eye disease through multi-component, and multi-pathway.