ObjectiveTo explore the mechanism of Lianli Decoction for the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC) based on the network pharmacology and molecular docking technique. MethodsThe active chemical components and their effect targets of six Traditional Chinese Medicines in Lianli Decoction were retrieved through the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform. Through the databases of OMIM, DrugBank, TTD, DISEASES, GeneCards, etc.,the related targets of UC were obtained; furthermore, the intersection between effect targets of active chemical components in Lianli Decoction and targets related to UC was obtained. By Cytoscape 3.8.2 software, a "Traditional Chinese Medicine-active components-targets" network of Lianli Decoction for treating UC was conducted to screen the main active chemical components. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by the STRING database and Cytoscape 3.8.2 software to screen the core targets. The Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were performed on intersection targets by using the DAVID database. The molecular docking was performed on the main active chemical components and core targets by using the AutoDock software. ResultsA total of 110 active chemical components from Lianli Decoction, 229 effect targets, and 1538 targets related to UC were obtained, and 134 targets related to Lianli Decoction for the treatment of UC were obtained after taking intersection. A total of 11 main active chemical components, including quercetin, kaempferol, β-sitosterol, isorhamnetin, and mangosteen, etc.,were obtained through the construction of the "Traditional Chinese Medicine-active components-targets", and 10 core targets, involving serine/threonine protein kinase 1 (AKT1), tumour necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)-6, tumour suppressor protein p53 (TP53), IL-1B, and proto-oncogene C-Jun (JUN), etc., were screened out by constructing the PPI network. The results of GO functional enrichment analysis revealed that the biological processes involved in the intersection targets were mainly related to apoptosis process, inflammatory response, and signal transduction, etc., the cellular compositions involved in intersection targets mainly related to nuclei, cytosol, protein complexes, and nucleoplasm, etc., and molecular functions involved in intersection targets mainly related to enzyme binding, transcription factor binding, protein binding, cytokine activity, etc. The results of KEGG pathway enrichment analysis indicated that intersection targets were mainly enriched in TNF signaling pathway, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathway, hypoxia-inducible factor 1 signaling pathway, and Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, etc. The results of molecule docking implied that quercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, mangosteen, β-sitosterol, etc., interpreted strong affinity to the core targets in terms of AKT1, TNF, IL-6, TP53, IL-1B, and JUN. ConclusionLianli Decoction has the characteristics of multi-component, multi-target, and multi-pathway synergistic effect for the treatment of UC. Several main active chemical components of Lianli Decoction may play a role in anti-inflammation, immune regulation, maintenance of intestinal mucosal immune barrier, and regulation of intestinal flora, etc., so as to achieve the treatment of UC by acting on multiple signaling pathways through multiple targets with respect to AKT1, TNF, IL-6, TP53, IL-1B, and JUN, etc.

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