# Network-based pharmacology to predict the mechanism of qianghuo erhuang decoction in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

## TL;DR

This study uses network pharmacology to explore how Qianghuo Erhuang Decoction may treat rheumatoid arthritis by analyzing its active ingredients and their biological pathways.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a network-based pharmacology approach to predict the mechanisms of a traditional Chinese medicine in treating rheumatoid arthritis.

## Key findings

- QED contains 141 active ingredients, with key compounds like β-sitosterol and baicalein targeting 166 RA-related genes.
- QED may treat RA by influencing pathways such as PI3K-Akt, IL-17, and TNF, which are linked to inflammation and angiogenesis.
- GO and KEGG analyses revealed 2229 biological processes and multiple signaling pathways potentially modulated by QED.

## Abstract

To investigate the mechanisms of Qianghuo Erhuang Decoction (QED) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we performed compounds, targets prediction and network analysis using a network pharmacology method.

We collected active ingredients and targets of QED according to the database of Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) and selected therapeutic targets on RA. “drug-ingredient-target” network was made for the intersecting genes. The STRING database was used for constructing a protein-protein interaction network (PPI) for the intersection genes, and R version 4.1.2 software was used for Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis.

We found that there were 141 main active ingredients in QED, of which the main core active ingredients were: β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, baicalein, wogonin, kaempferol, etc., involving 166 RA genes. GO enrichment analysis results showed that QED involved 2229 biological processes, 78 cell components and 212 molecular functions. QED might interfere and treat RA through lipid and atherosclerosis, cancer pathways, PI3K-Akt, AGE-RAGE, IL-17, TNF, as well as HIF-1 signaling pathways.

QED may treat RA by regulating inflammation-related signaling pathways, angiogenesis signaling pathways, and reducing the expression of inflammatory factors.