Mechanism of Ephedra-Guizhi in Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

The active components and corresponding target proteins in Ephedra and Guizhi were retrieved through TCMSP database, and Rheumatoid Arthritis(RA) related targets were retrieved with "rheumatoid arthritis" as the keyword in GeneCards database. After the collected two types of targets were mapped and intersected with each other, PPI network was constructed through STRING platform, and visual analysis was carried out by Cytoscape software. At the same time, the intersection targets were enriched and analyzed by GO and KEGG with the help of David 6.8 database. Finally, the core target and key active components were docking verified by Schrodinger software. Two kinds of targets are mapped, there are 134 intersection targets. PPI analysis shows that the core targets are AKT1, IL6, TP53, RELA and CCND1. Go and KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the key signal pathways were TNF signal pathway, Toll like receptor signal pathway and PI3K-Akt signal pathway. Molecular docking results showed that quercetin, luteolin and dihydroquercetin had good binding effects with AKT1, IL6 and TP53. It is concluded that the active components of Ephedra-Guizhi may play a role in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory mediators and suppressing the excessive proliferation of dendritic cells and macrophages in joint synovium to prevent pathological progression of RA.