Mechanisms of Chinese medical formula Fangji Huangqi Decoction as an effective treatment of nephrotic syndrome based on systems pharmacology

Objective With the development of the society, the number of people who catch the nephrotic syndrome (NS) is going up roughly. As we all know, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), especially Fangji Huangqi Decoction (FHD), has a long history with good curative effects on NS. However, the mechanism of FHD treating NS has not been clearly elucidated. Methods In this study, TCMSP platform was employed to screen active compounds of each herb of Fangji Huangqi Decoction combined with literatures. Furthermore, PharmMapper and SEA were used to predict and screen the active targets of FHD, and the HOME-NCBI-GENE, GeneCards and OMIM database were used to screen the active targets of NS. The GO and KEGG pathways involved in the targets were analyzed by ClueGO. Finally, contribution index was used to screen the active ingredients of FHD in the treatment of NS. Results After drug-likeness (DL) and bioavailability (OB) filtering, 43 compounds were selected from FHD, interacting with 85 NS-related targets. Systematic analysis of the constructed networks revealed that it was mainly involved in PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, T cell receptor signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway. The contribution index of every active ingredient also indicated five compounds, including astragaloside IV, quercetin, glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhizin and fangchinoline. Conclusions These results have successfully predicted the pharmacodynamic material basis and the mechanism efficiency of FHD in the treatment of NS.