Mechanism of Smilax china L. in the treatment of hepatic fibrosis based on network pharmacology and molecular docking technology

Objective: To investigate the mechanism of the active ingredients of Smilax china L. in the treatment of hepatic fibrosis (HF). Methods: The targets of the active ingredients of Smilax china L. were predicted using the TCMSP database, PubChem database, Babel software, Swiss Target Prediction platform, SEA platform, and UniProt database. The targets for HF were obtained using the DisGeNET database. Venn diagram platforms were used to intersect the active ingredients of Smilax china L. and HF targets. The key targets were selected using the STRING database to construct a protein-protein interaction network model. The key compounds were selected using the Cytoscape software to construct an active Smilax china L. ingredient-action target network. The intersection target was used for GO enrichment analysis and KEGG metabolic pathway analysis by ClueGO. The DockThor program was used to connect the important active ingredients and compounds of Smilax china L. with the corresponding intersection targets by calculating the binding energy and using the PyMOL software to create visual images. Results: A total of 9 active ingredients, 209 targets, 56 targets, and 15 key targets related to HF were identified from Smilax china L. The biological processes associated with Smilax china L. for preventing HF mainly included collagen metabolism, positive regulation of vascular endothelial cell migration, muscle cell proliferation, and smooth muscle cell proliferation. The pathways mainly included the IL-17 signaling pathway, estrogen signaling pathway, prolactin signaling pathway, and pancreatic cancer pathway. Conclusion: The mechanism of Smilax china L. in the treatment of HF was preliminarily explored. Smilax china L. has multi-component and multi-target characteristics, through which it can be used to treat HF.