[Mechanism of Huangjing Qianshi Decoction in treatment of prediabetic mice based on transcriptome sequencing]

Based on transcriptome sequencing technology, the mouse model of prediabetes treated with Huangjing Qianshi Decoction was sequenced to explore the possible mechanism of treating prediabetes. First of all, transcriptome sequencing was performed on the normal BKS-DB mouse group, the prediabetic model group, and the Huangjing Qianshi Decoction treatment group(treatment group) to obtain differentially expressed genes in the skeletal muscle samples of mice. The serum biochemical indexes were detected in each group to screen out the core genes of Huangjing Qianshi Decoction in prediabetes. Gene Ontology(GO) database and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) database were used to conduct signaling pathway enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes, and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR) was used to verify them. The results showed that the levels of fasting blood glucose(FBG), fasting insulin(FINS), insulin resistance index(HOMA-IR), total cholesterol(TC), triglycerides(TG), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C) in the mouse model were significantly decreased after treatment with Huangjing Qianshi Decoction. In the results of differential gene screening, there were 1 666 differentially expressed genes in the model group as compared with the normal group, and there were 971 differentially expressed genes in the treatment group as compared with the model group. Among them, interleukin-6(IL-6) and NR3C2 genes, which were closely related to the regulation of insulin resis-tance function, were significantly up-regulated between the model group and the normal group, and vascular endothelial growth factor A(VEGFA) genes were significantly down-regulated between the model group and the normal group. However, the expression results of IL-6, NR3C2, and VEGFA genes were adverse between the treatment group and the model group. GO functional enrichment analysis found that the biological process annotation mainly focused on cell synthesis, cycle, and metabolism; cell component annotation mainly focused on organelles and internal components; and molecular function annotation mainly focused on binding molecular functions. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis found that it involved the protein tyrosine kinase 6(PTK6) pathway, CD28-dependent phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B(PI3K/AKT) pathway, p53 pathway, etc. Therefore, Huangjing Qianshi Decoction can improve the state of prediabetes, and the mechanism may be related to cell cycle and apoptosis, PI3K/AKT pathway, p53 pathway, and other biological pathways regulated by IL-6, NR3C2, and VEGFA.

[Mechanism of Huangjing Qianshi Decoction in treatment of prediabetes based on network pharmacology and molecular docking]

This study analyzed the molecular mechanism of Huangjing Qianshi Decoction(HQD) in the treatment of prediabetes based on network pharmacology and molecular docking. The active components of HQD were identified and screened based on Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP, http://Lsp.nwu.edu.cn/tcmsp.php) and then the targets of the components and the genes related to prediabetes were retrieved, followed by identifying the common targets of the decoction and the disease. The medicinal component-target network was constructed by Cytoscape to screen key components. The protein-protein interaction(PPI) network was established by STRING and hub genes were identified by Cytoscape-CytoNCA, followed by Gene Ontology(GO) term enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) of the hub genes with R-clusterProfi-ler. Thereby, the possible signaling pathways were predicted and the molecular mechanism was deduced. A total of 79 active components of HQD and 785 diabetes-related targets of the components were screened out. The hub genes mainly involved the GO terms of tricarboxylic acid cycle, peptide binding, amide binding, hydrolase activity, and kinase activity regulation, and the KEGG pathways of AGE-RAGE signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, AMPK signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway, and insulin signaling pathway. Western blot result showed that HQD-containing serum significantly reduced the expression of AKT1, AGE, and RAGE proteins in insulin resistance model cells. HQD's treatment of prediabetes is characterized by multiple pathways, multiple targets, and multiple levels. The main mechanism is that the components zhonghualiaoine, baicalein, kaempferol, and luteolin act on AKT1 and inhibit the AGE-RAGE axis.