A network pharmacology approach to determine active ingredients and rationality of herb combinations of Modified-Simiaowan for treatment of gout

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Modified Simiaowan (MSW) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula and is widely used as a clinically medication formula for its efficiency in treating gouty diseases. To predict the active ingredients in MSW and uncover the rationality of herb combinations of MSW. Materials and methods: Three drug-target networks including the candidate ingredient-target network (cl-cT) that links the candidate ingredients and targets, the core ingredient-target-pathway network connecting core potential ingredients and targets through related pathways, and the rationality of herb combinations of MSW network, which was derived from the cI-cT network, were developed to dissect the active ingredients in MSW and relationship between ingredients in herb combinations and their targets for gouty diseases. On the other hand, herbal ingredients comparisons were also conducted based on six physicochemical properties to investigate whether the herbs in MSW are similar in chemicals. Moreover, HUVEC viability and expression levels of ICAM-1 induced by monosodium urate (MSU) crystals were assessed to determine the activities of potential ingredients in MSW. Results: Predicted by the core ingredient-target-pathway network, we collected 30 core ingredients in MSW and 25 inflammatory cytokines and uric acid synthetase or transporters, which are effective for gouty treatment through some related pathways. Experimental results also confirmed that those core ingredients could significantly increase HUVEC viability and attenuate the expression of ICAM-1, which supported the effectiveness of MSW in treating gouty diseases. Moreover, heat-clearing and dampness-eliminating herbs in MSW have similar physicochemical properties, which stimulate all the inflammatory and uric acid-lowing targets respectively, while the core drug and basic prescription in MSW stimulate the major and almost all the core targets, respectively. Conclusion: Our work successfully predicts the active ingredients in MSW and explains the cooperation between these ingredients and corresponding targets through related pathways for gouty diseases, and provides basis for an alternative approach to investigate the rationality of herb combinations of MSW on the network pharmacology level, which might be beneficial to drug development and applications. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.