A study on the mechanism of action of YiQiYangYindecotion for the treatment of diabetes based on network pharmacology.

To study the mechanism of action of YiQiYangYin decoction on diabetes mellitus by a network pharmacology method. The chemical components and targets of all the drugs in the YiQiYangYin decoction were obtained through the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systematic Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) and Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Database (TCMID), and the targets of diabetes were screened through the GeneCards and OMIM databases. The obtained targets were imported into Cytoscape 3.7.2 software to construct the active ingredient target network and were imported into the String database to construct the protein‒protein interaction (PPI) network, and the Bisogenet plug-in in Cytoscape 3.7.2 was used for network topology analysis. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto gene and genomic KEGG enrichment analysis were performed on the potential targets of YiQiYangYin decoction for diabetes mellitus using the R language Bioconductor platform, and the results were imported into Cytoscape3.7.2 software to obtain KEGG network relationship maps. Molecular docking software AutoDock Vina was used to dock the core targets with the active ingredients. A total of 61 chemical components and 581 disease targets were obtained, including 1100 intersecting targets. The key targets included ALB, AKT1, and IL-6. GO functional analysis showed that BP was mainly involved in oxidative stress and response to lipopolysaccharide, epithelial cell proliferation, response to oxidative stress and ossification. MF was mainly involved in receptor‒ligand activity, cytokine activity, cytokine receptor binding, nuclear receptor activity, etc. CC was mainly involved in the endoplasmic reticulum lumen, transcription factor complex, membrane raft, microfilm region, etc. KEGG enriched 159 signaling pathways, including the AGE/RAGE signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, and IL-17-mediated MAPK signaling pathway. The molecular docking results showed that quercetin and lignocaine had good binding activity with AKT1 and ALB. The treatment of diabetes mellitus by YiQiYangYin decoction works through multiple components and targets, which lays the foundation for further study of its mechanism of action.