Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: Radix Pueraria (RP) has a long history of dual-use in medicine and food, and is well known as “Asian ginseng”. Recently, some studies about the effect of RP against glioma have been reported. However, little is elucidated about the molecular mechanism of interaction. This study used network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques to clarify the molecular mechanism of RP in the treatment of glioma. Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) was applied to screen potential active ingredients of RP and their targets. Targets for glioma were obtained from Genecards, OMIM, and Therapeutic Target Database (TTD). The topological analysis of cross-target and core target interaction was conducted using protein-protein interaction analysis (PPI). With the application of bioinformatics, GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were further carried out. Molecular docking was used then to validate the binding affinity between active components and key targets. This study successfully identified 6 potential active ingredients, namely beta-sitosterol, daidzein, formononetin, genistein, ononin, and puerarin. The hub targets were AKT1, TP53, VEGRA, EGFR, and MAPK3. These targets were mainly involved in biological processes, such as RNA polymerase II-specific DNA-binding transcription factor binding, and positive regulation of cell migration in the membrane raft, and were regulated by PI3K-Akt pathway. Further study showed that almost all the compounds had good binding abilities with above-mentioned targets. In short, this study systematically revealed the anti-glioma mechanism of RP to provide reference for the treatment of glioma.

Key words: color:#231F20, ">Radix Pueraria, glioma, network pharmacology, molecular docking, blood-brain barrier