Explore the molecular mechanism of Moslae Herba’s antiinflammatory based on network pharmacology

Moslae Herba has the function of inducing sweating to releasing exterior, removing dampness for regulating stomach. It is often used clinically in the treatment of summer heat dampness syndrome, fever in summer, acute enteritis, and herpes pharyngitis in children. There have been more studies on anti-inflammatory effects of Moslae Herba. However, research on the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Moslae Herba is rarely reported. Therefore, in this paper, a network pharmacologic approach was adopted to explore the potential molecular mechanism of the active ingredients in Moslae Herba for the anti-inflammatory. Firstly, all chemical components of Moslae Herba were searched through TCMSP, TDT, TCMID and other databases. According to ADME parameters (OB ≥ 30% and DL ≥ 0.18), the active ingredient in Moslae Herba was screened. Secondly, the targets of active chemical components were searched by traditional Chinese medicine target database, TCMSP database and BATMAN-TCM database, and the target data sets are established. PPI analysis and STRING database were used to construct a protein interaction network for the target of Moslae Herba active ingredients and inflammation. Finally, Cytoscape 3.6.1 software was used to construct a complex network diagram of “drug components-targets-disease”. GO functional and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed by DAVID. As a result, 13 active compounds were screened out of 161 compounds. These active compounds were retrieved from 309 targets, and 143 potential targets were most closely related to the anti-inflammatory mechanism of action of Moslae Herba. Through GO biological function pathway enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, 20 biological processes and 20 signal pathways were screened. It is suggested that the active ingredients of Moslae Herba may regulate the inflammation mechanism through the main pathways such as Pathways in cancer, Tuberculosis, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway.