Protective effects of Re-yan-ning mixture on Streptococcus pneumonia in rats based on network pharmacology

Abstract

Context

Re-yan-ning mixture (RYNM) is a new national drug approved by China's State Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of colds, simple pneumonia and acute bronchitis.

Objective

To determine the mechanism of action of RYNM in the treatment of bacterial pneumonia.

Materials and methods

Using the network pharmacology approach, the multiple components, component candidate targets and multiple therapeutic targets of RYNM were screened and functionally enriched. Also, we established a rat Streptococcus pneumonia model to verify the results of network pharmacology enrichment analysis. Forty male SPF Sprague Dawley rats were divided into four groups of 10 rats: control (normal saline), model (normal saline), levofloxacin-intervened and RYNM-intervened groups. IL-10, NOS2, COX-1, IL-6, TNF-α and NF-κB in serum and BALF were detected by ELISA. Western blot detected IL-17, IL-6, TNF-α, COX-2 and Bcl-2.

Results

The network pharmacology approach successfully identified 48 bioactive components in RYNM, and 65 potential targets and 138 signal pathways involved in the treatment of Streptococcus pneumonia with RYNM. The in vivo experiments indicated that model group has visible inflammation and lesions while RYNM and levofloxacin groups have not. The RYNM exhibited its therapeutic effects on Streptococcus pneumonia mainly via the regulation of cell proliferation and survival through the IL-6/IL-10/IL-17, Bax/Bcl-2, COX-1/COX-2, NF-κB and TNF-α signalling pathways.

Discussion and conclusions

The present study demonstrated the protective effects of RYNM on Streptococcus pneumonia, providing a potential mechanism for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia with RYNM.

Keywords:

• Traditional Chinese medicine
• pneumonia
• signal pathway

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for the third-level laboratory of traditional Chinese medicine preparations.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program for Traditional Chinese Medicine Modernization [2019YFC1711204], Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Basic and New Medicine Research [1008] and Shaanxi Province Key Subject of Traditional Chinese Medicine [303061107].