Study on the effective ingredients and mechanism of action of Gardenia jasminoides in the treatment of hyperuricemia

Abstract

Based on network pharmacology methods and molecular docking techniques, the mechanism of action of Gardenia jasminoides in treating hyperuricemia (HUA) was analyzed. Using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), a total of 15 active ingredients of Gardenia jasminoides were predicted. The target genes were predicted and obtained through TCMSP and Uniprot databases, resulting in 369 target genes. Using OMIM, GeneCards, and DrugBank databases to search for HUA disease targets, 906 HUArelated pathogenic genes were obtained by merging deduplicated data, and a Venn diagram was drawn to find the relationship between the target of Gardenia jasminoides active ingredients and HUA-related genes, which is reflected by 48 common genes. Protein-Protein Interaction Networks (PPI) for these 48 shared genes were drawn using the String database platform, visual optimization and core gene mining were performed, and core genes such as TP53 and CASP3 were obtained. Relevant pathways of HUA were obtained through the DAVID database, and Cytoscape 3.10.1 software was used to draw the drug-component-target-pathwaydisease network diagram to more intuitively show that quercetin, kaempferol, and βsitosterol in Gardenia jasminoides are the three most effective components for treating hyperuricemia. GO enrichment and KEGG enrichment analyses were conducted using the Metascape platform and microbiota platform, showing 2889 GO enrichment analysis pathways in biological process (GO-BP), 152 in cellular component (GO-CC), and 236 molecular function (GO-MF)-related processes. KEGG enrichment analysis genes were enriched and significant in lipid and atherosclerosis pathways, diabetes complications pathway, AGE-RAGE pathway, etc. Molecular docking ligands and receptors were retrieved from TCMSP and RCSB PDB databases, and molecular docking was performed on the CB-DOCK2 online molecular docking platform. The results showed that quercetin, kaempferol, and βsitosterol had good spatial binding ability with TP53 and CASP3, further verifying the binding degree of effective ingredients to core targets.