Network pharmacology reveals that Berberine may function against Alzheimer’s disease via the AKT signaling pathway

作者：Wei Wei, Jiuxiu Yao, Tingting Zhang, Jiayu Wen, Zhen Zhang, Yi-miao Luo, Yu Cao, Hao Li · 发表于：Frontiers in Neuroscience · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fnins.2023.1059496 · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Berberine and alkaloids research、Alkaloids: synthesis and pharmacology、Plant-based Medicinal Research

Objective To investigate the mechanism underlying the effects of berberine (BBR) in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods 3 × Tg AD mice were treated with BBR for 3 months, then the open field test (OFT), the novel object recognition test (NOR) and the Morris water maze (MWM) test were performed to assess behavioral performance. Hematoxylin–eosin (HE) staining, Nissl staining were used to examine histopathological changes. The pharmacological and molecular properties of BBR were obtained from the TCMSP database. BBR-associated AD targets were identified using the PharmMapper (PM), the comparative toxicogenomics database (CTD), DisGeNet and the human gene database (GeneCards). Core networks and BBR targets for the treatment of AD were identified using PPI network and functional enrichment analyses. AutoDock software was used to model the interaction between BBR and potential targets. Finally, RT-qPCR, western blotting were used to validate the expression of core targets. Results Behavioral experiments, HE staining and Nissl staining have shown that BBR can improve memory task performance and neuronal damage in the hippocampus of AD mice. 117 BBR-associated targets for the treatment of AD were identified, and 43 genes were used for downstream functional enrichment analysis in combination with the results of protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. 2,230 biological processes (BP) terms, 67 cell components (CC) terms, 243 molecular function (MF) terms and ...