Study on mechanism of Guilu Erxianjiao in treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder based on network pharmacology

The aim of this paper was to predict the multi-compound, multi-target and multi-pathway mechanism of Guilu Erxianjiao in treating post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) based on network pharmacology. Active compounds and corresponding targets of Guilu Erxianjiao were obtained from TCMSP, BATMAN-TCM, Chemistry and DrugBank database, and known therapeutic targets of PTSD were obtained from OMIM, TTD and DisGeNET Database. The protein interaction network of compound-disease was then built by combining with the STRING Database. Topological parameters of the network were analyzed by Cytoscape 3.6.0 to get key active compounds and their targets. The GO biological process analysis and KEGG pathway analysis of the key targets were conducted. Based on the results of KEGG, the "compound-target-pathway" network was built by Cytoscape 3.6.0 and the results were verified by SystemsDock online molecular docking tool. The prediction results showed that there were 67 active compounds and 420 targets for Guilu Erxianjiao, and 206 known PTSD-related therapeutic targets. Besides, 66 targets, 58 terms and 22 pathways were obtained from Cytoscape 3.6.0 topological parameters analysis, GO biological process analysis, and KEGG pathway analysis, respectively. Molecular docking results showed that both target with the maximum degree value and common targets of PTSD and Guilu Erxianjiao in the pathway can be effectively combined with their corresponding active compounds through molecular docking. The results suggested that Guilu Erxianjiao could exert anti-PTSD effect by regulating synaptic plasticity, anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory and promoting fear memory extinction through pathways such as LTP, PI3 K/Akt/mTOR, TNF, serotonergic synapse and dopaminergic synapse. This study provides a theoretical basis for further elucidating pharmacological mechanisms of Guilu Erxianjiao in treating PTSD.