Traditional Chinese medicine network pharmacology study on exploring the mechanism of Xuebijing Injection in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019

Chin J Nat Med. 2020 Dec;18(12):941-951. doi: 10.1016/S1875-5364(20)60038-3.

Abstract

As a representative drug for the treatment of severe community-acquired pneumonia and sepsis, Xuebijing (XBJ) injection is also one of the recommended drugs for the prevention and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but its treatment mechanism for COVID-19 is still unclear. Therefore, this study aims to explore the potential mechanism of XBJ injection in the treatment of COVID-19 employing network pharmacology and molecular docking methods. The corresponding target genes of 45 main active ingredients in XBJ injection and COVID-19 were obtained by using multiple database retrieval and literature mining. 102 overlapping targets of them were screened as the core targets for analysis. Then built the PPI network, TCM-compound-target-disease, and disease-target-pathway networks with the help of Cytoscape 3.6.1 software. After that, utilized DAVID to perform gene ontology (GO) function enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis to predict the action mechanism of overlapping targets. Finally, by applying molecular docking technology, all compounds were docked with COVID-19 3 CL protease(3CLpro), spike protein (S protein), and angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2). The results indicated that quercetin, luteolin, apigenin and other compounds in XBJ injection could affect TNF, MAPK1, IL6 and other overlapping targets. Meanwhile, anhydrosafflor yellow B (AHSYB), salvianolic acid B (SAB), and rutin could combine with COVID-19 crucial proteins, and then played the role of anti-inflammatory, antiviral and immune response to treat COVID-19. This study revealed the multiple active components, multiple targets, and multiple pathways of XBJ injection in the treatment of COVID-19, which provided a new perspective for the study of the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Molecular docking; Network pharmacology; Xuebijing injection.

MeSH terms

  • Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 / metabolism
  • Biological Availability
  • COVID-19 Drug Treatment*
  • COVID-19* / metabolism
  • COVID-19* / virology
  • Coronavirus 3C Proteases / metabolism
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal* / pharmacokinetics
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal* / therapeutic use
  • Humans
  • Medicine, Chinese Traditional / methods*
  • Molecular Docking Simulation / methods*
  • Protein Interaction Mapping / methods
  • SARS-CoV-2* / drug effects
  • SARS-CoV-2* / physiology
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects*
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / metabolism

Substances

  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
  • Xuebijing
  • spike protein, SARS-CoV-2
  • Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2
  • Coronavirus 3C Proteases