Understanding the molecular mechanism of the effect of ginkgo folium on the treatment of IgA nephropathy using network pharmacology and molecular docking

Abstract

This work focused on identifying the molecular target of Ginkgo Folium (GF) for treating IgA nephropathy and underlying mechanism through network pharmacology (NP). The active components and targets of GF and targets associated with IgAN were obtained by TCMSP database, DrugBank etc. The key targets of GF against IgAN were searched by network topology. The drug-disease intersection targets were performed GO functional annotation as well as KEGG pathway analysis, and molecular docking (MD) was conducted to verify the degree of combination of the target and ligand. Three core compounds and seven key targets were found by topological analysis. GO and KEGG results suggested that GF effect on IgAN was strongly associated with OS cellular response and AGE-RAGE pathways. Molecular docking of the three core components with AKT1 indicated that they had good binding activity. Ginkgo biloba had multicomponent, multitarget, and multi-pathway effects on IgAN.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• network pharmacology
• IgA nephropathy
• traditional Chinese medicine
• molecular docking

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Special Science Research Fundation of Sichuan Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China (NO.2021MS373).