Eucommia Folium Extracts Alleviate Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in vivo and in vitro Based on the Network Pharmacology Study

  OBJECTIVE  To explore the active ingredients, targets and possible mechanism of ELE alleviating NAFLD based on the method of network pharmacology.

  METHODS  The components in ELE were found in CNKI, Wanfang, TCMSP and Pubmed database. The components targets were found in TCMSP and swisstarget prediction database. NAFLD targets were found in genecard database and drugbank database. PPI network was established to analyze the interaction among targets by String 11.0 database. Compounds-targets-pathways network was established by the software of Cytoscape. Go and KEGG analysis were carried by david database. In addition the key targets were verified by cell and animals experiments.

  RESULTS  The network of ELE against NAFLD contains 9 compounds and 35 targets. The targets related to lipid metabolism are PPARα and CPT-1A, and the signaling pathways mainly related to lipid metabolism are insulin resistance and AMPK signaling pathway. In vivo and in vitro experiments indicated that ELE could enhance lipid oxidation and improve NAFLD by activating AMPKα and enhancing the expression of PPARα and CPT-1A.

  CONCLUSION  ELE can enhance lipid metabolism and improve NAFLD mainly related to AMPK signaling pathway.