A network pharmacological approach for the identification of potential therapeutic targets of Brahmi Nei – a complex traditional Siddha formulation

Abstract

Brahmi Nei (BN), a traditional Indian polyherbal formulation has been described in classical texts for the treatment of anxiety and depression, as well as to fortify the immune system. The individual herbs of BN have been used for treatment of wide range of disorders including cognition, inflammation, skin ailments and cancer etc., This diverse basket of therapeutic activity suggests that BN may possess therapeutic benefits to other disorders. So, the present study aims to identify the potential therapeutic targets of BN using a network pharmacological approach to comprehend the multi target action of its multiple phytoconstituents. We have employed Randić Index for the first time to calculate the contribution score of module segregated targets towards diseases. Our results suggests that BN targets could also be effective in other diseases such as lysosomal storage disorders, respiratory disorders etc., apart from neurological disorders. The key targets with highest topological measures of Targets-(Pathway)-Targets network were identified as potential therapeutic targets of BN. And the top hit target PTGS2, a gene encoding for cyclooxygenase-2 was further evaluated using molecular docking, molecular dynamic simulation and in vitro studies. Our findings open up new therapeutic facets for BN that can be explored systematically in future.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• Brahmi Nei (BN)
• network pharmacology
• Randić Index
• Contribution Score (CS)
• molecular modelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Agnes Preethy H: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Investigation, writing original draft; Yanamandram Balasubramanian Venkatakrishnan: Conceptualisation, Methodology; Vigneshwar Ramakrishnan: Conceptualisation, Resources, Supervision, Writing—Review and Editing; Uma Maheswari Krishnan: Conceptualisation, Resources, validation, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing—Review and Editing.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) through grant number (Z-28015/215/2015-HPC(EMR)-AYUSH-E) and infrastructural support from SASTRA Deemed University.