Network pharmacology and verification experiment-based prediction of active components and potential targets of Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus-Saposhnikoviae Radix (Yizhiren-Fangfeng) for treatment of diabetic kidney disease.

Background: In this study, we analyzed the potential active components, related crucial targets and possible signaling pathway mechanisms of Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus and Saposhnikoviae Radix (AOF-SR) herb pairs in the treatment of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) using network pharmacology and verification experiments. Methods: The active compounds and potential targets of AOF-SR were derived from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform, The Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and PubChem databases, and the potential therapeutic targets of DKD were derived from the OMIM, Drugbank, and DisGeNET databases. The "compounds-diseases-targets" network was constructed using Cytoscape 3.6.0. ClusterMaker functionality in Cytoscape is being used to screen important targets for AOF-SR treatment of DKD. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis of important targets were performed using DAVID database. In addition, according to the predicted results of network pharmacology, HK-2 cells were used to construct DKD model for verification experiment. HK-2 cells were divided into control group, high glucose (HG) group and AOF-SR (HG + AOF-SR) group to detect survival rate and expression of key proteins in NF-B and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. Results: A total of 38 compounds were selected from AOF-SR, of which 23 were Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus and 15 were Saposhnikoviae Radix. Through enrichment analysis of 82 important targets, 88 signaling pathways were identified; some of these pathways, such as the NF-B, PI3K-Akt, IL-17, and JAK/STAT signaling pathways, regulate the pathological process of DKD. In verification experiment, the HK-2 cells survival rate was higher in the HG + AOF-SR group than in the HG group (P < 0.05). Moreover, western blotting results showed that the expression levels of NF-B, p-PI3K, and p-Akt in HG + AOF-SR group were significantly lower than those in HG group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Overall, this study revealed the active compounds, important targets and possible mechanisms of AOF-SR treatment for DKD, and conducted preliminary verification experiments on its correctness, provided novel insights into the treatment of DKD by AOF-SR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]