Network pharmacology-based and molecular docking forecast mechanism of Shan Zhuyu-ShanYao for treatment in Alzheimer's disease

The effective components and key targets of Shan Zhuyu (Cornus officinalis Sieb.et Zucc, SZY)-ShanYao (Dioscorea opposita Thunb, SY) (SS) in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD, neurodegenerative disease) were screened by network pharmacology (NP) and molecular docking (MD) technology in this study. We obtained 25 potential bioactive ingredients, 88 putative targets of SS and 4893 related-AD targets. Traditional Chinese Medicine of SS has 77 common targets with AD disease.The network of drug-disease was fabricated 7 key pharmacodynamic components. Interaction network construction and topological analysis yielded, 8 anti-AD targets of SS were filtered. MD investigations showed that bioactive compounds (Hydroxygenkwanin and hancinone C) could stably bind to the key target proteins. 13 pathways related to AD were revealed signaling pathway and functional enrichment analysis. Among them, identified a statistically high significance of the calcium signaling pathway and a variety of calcium channels have been shown to be altered in AD. Our studies confirmed multiple active ingredients, potential targets about pathways of SS, by regulating the active components combined with relevant target proteins in the calcium signaling pathway, which are crucial in the accumulation of neurofbrillary tangles (NFTs) and amyloid-beta (A beta) plaques. Thereby, this furnishes a robust foundation for subsequent experimental studies.