Uncovering pharmacological mechanisms of Wu-tou decoction acting on rheumatoid arthritis through systems approaches: drug-target prediction, network analysis and experimental validation.

ABSTRACT: Wu-tou decoction (WTD) has been extensively used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Due to lack of appropriate methods, pharmacological mechanisms of WTD acting on RA have not been fully elucidated. In this study, a list of putative targets for compositive compounds containing in WTD were predicted by drugCIPHER-CS. Then, the interaction network of the putative targets of WTD and known RA-related targets was constructed and hub nodes were identified. After constructing the interaction network of hubs, four topological features of each hub, including degree, node betweenness, closeness and k-coreness, were calculated and 79 major hubs were identified as candidate targets of WTD, which were implicated into the imbalance of the nervous, endocrine and immune (NEI) systems, leading

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4377576 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature