Analysis of the Effective Mechanism of Fructus Aurantii Immaturus in the Treatment of Chronic Atrophic Gastritis Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Technology

JJ Wu,
YB Mei and
NR Huang

Gastroenterology & Hepatology Research 2021;3(1):2

doi: 10.53388/ghr2021-03-028

Published online: March 12, 2021

Author information

Citation: Wu J, Mei Y, Huang N. Analysis of the Effective Mechanism of Fructus Aurantii Immaturus in the Treatment of Chronic Atrophic Gastritis Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Technology. Gastroenterol & Hepatol Res. 2021;3(1):2. doi: 10.53388/ghr2021-03-028.

Abstract

Background

Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is a common precancerous disease, which has attracted extensive attention. Fructus Aurantii Immaturus (FAI) is a Chinese herbal medicine widely used to treat gastritis for thousands of years, but its pharmacological mechanism is still unclear. In this study, the potential pharmacological mechanism of FAI in treating CAG was investigated through network pharmacology and molecular docking.

Methods

The corresponding targets of FAI were collected from TCMSP database, and the targets of CAG were obtained from GeneCards database and DisGeNET database. Then, the disease-components-action targets network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were constructed. By running the packages of Bioconductor platform with R software, Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were carried out for the relevant targets. After that, we verified our prediction of candidate targets by docking with the important components in FAI.

Results

There were 22 active ingredients in FAI, and we obtained 40 action targets, including AKT1, CASP3, VEGFA, JUN, etc. The signaling pathways regulated by these targets are closely related to signal transduction, apoptosis and proliferation, including PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, etc. Molecular docking showed that the hydrogen bond, Ï-Ï stacking and cation âÏ were the main forms of interaction.

Conclusion

The treatment of CAG by FAI is the result of multi-molecule and multi-target interaction. The mechanism of action involves multiple biological functions and multiple signal transduction pathways. This study can provide more ideas for the development of new drugs for CAG in the future.

Keywords

chronic atrophic gastritis, gene network, ethnopharmacology, traditional Chinese medicine, protein interaction maps, molecular docking

Copyright © 2025 Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC 4.0), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Wu J, Mei Y, Huang N. Analysis of the Effective Mechanism of Fructus Aurantii Immaturus in the Treatment of Chronic Atrophic Gastritis Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Technology. Gastroenterol & Hepatol Res. 2021;3(1):2. doi: 10.53388/ghr2021-03-028.

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Article History

Received	Revised	Accepted	Published
			March 12, 2021

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.53388/ghr2021-03-028

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