Abstract:
OBJECTIVE To study on active ingredients of Qingfei Oral Liquid in the treatment of COVID-19, based on network pharmacology and molecular docking. METHODS The Chinese Traditional Medicine System Pharmacology Analysis Platform (TCMSP) was used to search the chemical constituents of medicinal herbs in Qingfei Oral Liquid and the corresponding targets. The "compound-target-common pathway" network of Qingfei Oral Liquid for the treatment of viral pneumonia was built through Cytoscape software. Then the key compounds in the network were docked with the potential drug target protein for treating COVID-19. RESULTS Biological analysis of the target protein of compounds in Qingfei Oral Liquid was carried out to yield a total of 129 KEGG pathways (
P<0.05), and 104 KEGG pathways (
P<0.05) were obtained from biological analysis of the disease target proteins of viral pneumonia. Among them,83 common pathways were obtained. The "compound-target-common pathway" network contained 201 components and 2 424 corresponding targets. The docking of 78 core compounds in the network with the potential targets of treatment of COVID-19 drugs, RdRp, 3Clpro, and PLpro, showed that core components such as Phaseol, Dan-shexinkum D, 1,2,5,6-tetrahydrotanshinone had the similar drug affinity to current drugs treatment COVID-19. CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that many key components of Qingfei Oral Liquid might be docked well with multiple potential targets to achieve the purpose of treating COVID-19, reflecting the characteristics of multi-component, multi-target and multi-path of traditional Chinese medicine, and providing a reference for the modern creation of traditional Chinese medicine.