Objective: The network pharmacology is adopted in the paper to elaborate the active components, targets, and pathways of ginseng in the treatment of Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome (IC/BPS).
Materials and methods: The active components and potential targets of ginseng were obtained through the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). The OMIM, Disgenet, and Genecards databases for IC/BPS targets, and the STRING11.0 database were used for the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Meanwhile, the latter covers R language was used for the target of ginseng for IC/BPS, Bioconductor bioinformatics software for GO and KEGG functional enrichment analysis of key target genes, and the Cytoscape 3.8.2 software for constructing the "component-target" network and the "component-target-pathway" network map.
Results: The results are categorized into three camps: components, targets, and pathways. As for components, 22 active components of ginseng that perform biological activities in the cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus were observed, among which kaempferol, girinimbin, suchilacton, arachidonate, and gomisin B are the main active ones. 650 targets were found, mainly represented by PTGS2, PTGS1, AR, SLC6A4, and CHRM2, 134 of which (especially AKT1, TNF, VEGFA, TP53, EGFR, STAT3, IL-1β, ESR1, and JUN) contribute to the treatment of IC/BPS. Moreover, the pathways that serve as major contributors are the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, the HIF-1 signaling pathway, the STAT3 signaling pathway, the MAPK signaling pathway, the NF-κB signaling pathway, and the apoptosis-related pathway.
Conclusions: Ginseng can exert anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative stress and anti-apoptotic effects on IC/BPS thanks to its multi-component, multi-target and multi-way functions.