Journal Of
Polyphenols

Abstract: Abstract The aim of this study was to explore the mechanism of action of sea buckthorn polyphenols in the treatment of hyperlipidemia through network pharmacology and molecular docking. The TCMSP pharmacology database was used to screen the polyphenols present in sea buckthorn, and then the SwissTargetPrediction and Uniprot databases were used to obtain the potential targets of sea buckthorn polyphenols, which were supplemented by the literature. In total, 7 polyphenols and 154 potential targets were obtained. Through GeneCards, OMIM database, 1 358 hyperlipidemia-related targets were collected. We found that there were 101 targets at the intersection of components and diseases. Through GO and KEGG enrichment analysis, 27 core targets were obtained, which were AKT1, TNF, TP53, IL-6, etc. in order of degree value. 174 pathways were obtained from KEGG enrichment analysis, including AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, lipid and atherosclerosis, etc. The molecular docking of the main components to the targets was performed using OpenBabelGUI, AutoDockTools-1.5.6 software. Finally, the results were visualized using Cytoscape 3.9.1 software. The molecular docking results showed that sea buckthorn polyphenols have good binding ability with the key targets. Among them, such as quercetin and kaempferol, have good binding ability with TNF, TP53 and IL-6. For example, TNF binds to quercetin with a binding energy of -5.34 kcal/mol and to kaempferol with a binding energy of -6.22 kcal/mol; TP53 binds to kaempferol with a binding energy of -5.32 kcal/mol; IL-6 binds to quercetin with a binding energy of -5.62 kcal/mol, etc. Therefore, the network pharmacology study showed that the treatment of hyperlipidemia by sea buckthorn polyphenols can be realized by multi-component-multi-target-multi-pathway together, which provides some reference for the later study of sea buckthorn polyphenols in the treatment of hyperlipidemia.

Key words: molecular docking, network pharmacology, sea buckthorn, polyphenol, hyperlipidemia