Hepatoprotective Mechanism and Material Basis of Swertia Plants Based On Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Method

There are more than 40 Swertia species distributed in Tibetan plateau and has been widely used as "Dida" in the treatment of hepatobiliary diseases by Tibetan doctors since the 8th century AD. The present study was conducted to infer the prevalent species among 26 Swertia plants using network pharmacolo-gy-based analysis and molecular docking method. 52 active chemical components of Swertia plants and 189 targets related to icteric hepatitis were screened. The results predicted that Swertia plants may play a role through MAPK1, SRC, PIK3CA, PIK3R1, MAPK3, HRAS, HSP90AA1, and other key targets, which existed in the pathways of cancer, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, Hepatitis B, Proteoglycans in cancer, Focal adhesion and other pathways. Species such as Swertia chirality (Roxb. ex Fleming) Karst., Swertia pseudochinensis Hara and Swertia mussotii Franch showed better potential activities. Further experimentally validated the hepato-protective effect of predicted active components using LO2 hepatocyte injury model induced by H2O2. The result showed that luteolin, oleanolic acid, sweroside, swertiamarin, gentiopicroside, and amarogentin may be the key components dedicate to its hepatoprotective effect. Its hepatoprotective mechanism may be related to MAPK1, PIK3CA, PIK3R1, HSP90AA1, NF-& kappa;B and other targets enriched in PI3K-Akt pathway. This study revealed the therapeutic mechanism of Swertia plants on icteric hepatitis through a multi-components effect on multi-targets and multi-pathway synthesis.