Abstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate the active ingredients and potential molecular mechanism of Zi-Yin Ointment (ZYO) in the treatment of diabetic foot ulceration using network pharmacology and molecular docking. First, the chemical constituents and related targets of ZYO were obtained from the TCMSP database. Then, diabetic foot ulceration related targets were collected from GeneCards, OMIM, TTD, and DrugBank databases, and their intersection targets were extracted. A drug-component-target-disease visualization network was drawn using Cytoscape 3.9.1 software and the String database to screen out core components and key targets. GO and KEGG analysis were performed with the help of the Metascape database. Finally, molecular docking verification was conducted using AutoDock Vina and Pymol software. The results showed that the key active components of ZYO in the treatment of diabetic foot ulceration were quercetin, heriguard, luteolin, apigenin, kaempferol, and the first five targets were PTGS2, HSP90AB1, PTGS1, AR, and DPP4. GO enrichment analysis suggested that the biological processes mainly included inflammation response, cytokines, and protease receptor binding. KEGG pathway analysis mainly involved AGE-RAGE, MAPK, and PI3K-Akt signal pathways. Molecular docking results showed that the five main active ingredients had binding activity with the five target proteins. The treatment of diabetic foot ulceration by compound ZYO may be a multi-component, multi-protein target, and multi-pathway process, providing a reference for further study.