Exploring the Pharmacological Mechanism of Liuwei Dihuang Decoction for Diabetic Retinopathy: A Systematic Biological Strategy-Based Research

Mengxia Yuan; Qi He; Zhiyong Long; Xiaofei Zhu; Wang Xiang; Yonghe Wu; Shibin Lin

doi:10.1155/2021/5544518

Exploring the Pharmacological Mechanism of Liuwei Dihuang Decoction for Diabetic Retinopathy: A Systematic Biological Strategy-Based Research

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Aug 2:2021:5544518. doi: 10.1155/2021/5544518. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Mengxia Yuan^{1

2}, Qi He³, Zhiyong Long¹, Xiaofei Zhu¹, Wang Xiang¹, Yonghe Wu¹, Shibin Lin^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Shantou University Medical College, Shantou University, Shantou, Guangdong, China.
² Joint Shantou International Eye Center of Shantou University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shantou City, Guangdong Province, China.
³ Hunan University of Chinese Medicine Affiliated People's Hospital of Ningxiang City, Ningxiang City, Hunan Province, China.

Abstract

Objective: To explore the pharmacological mechanism of Liuwei Dihuang decoction (LDD) for diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Methods: The potential targets of LDD were predicted by PharmMapper. GeneCards and other databases were used to collect DR genes. Cytoscape was used to construct and analyze network DR and LDD's network, and DAVID was used for Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway enrichment analysis. Finally, animal experiments were carried out to verify the results of systematic pharmacology.

Results: Five networks were constructed and analyzed: (1) diabetic retinopathy genes' PPI network; (2) compound-compound target network of LDD; (3) LDD-DR PPI network; (4) compound-known target network of LDD; (5) LDD known target-DR PPI network. Several DR and treatment-related targets, clusters, signaling pathways, and biological processes were found. Animal experiments found that LDD can improve the histopathological changes of the retina. LDD can also increase erythrocyte filtration rate and decrease the platelet adhesion rate (P < 0.05) and decrease MDA and TXB2 (P < 0.05). Compared with the model group, the retinal VEGF and HIF-1α expression in the LDD group decreased significantly (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: The therapeutic effect of LDD on DR may be achieved by interfering with the biological processes (such as response to insulin, glucose homeostasis, and regulation of angiogenesis) and signaling pathways (such as insulin, VEGF, HIF-1, and ErbB signaling pathway) related to the development of DR that was found in this research.