title: A systems pharmacology approach to decipher the mechanism of danggui-shaoyao-san decoction for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) is a time-dependent course for a sequence of conditions that primarily impact the neurons in the human brain, ultimately, resulting in persistence and progressive degeneration and / or death of nerve cells and reduction of cognition and memory function. Currently, there are no therapeutic approaches to cure neurodegeneration, except certain medicines that temporarily alleviate symptoms, facilitating the improvement of a patients' quality of life. Danggui-shaoyao-san (DSS), as a famous Chinese herbal formula, has been widely used in the treatment of various illnesses, including neurodegenerative diseases. Although well-practiced in clinical medicine, the mechanisms involved in DSS for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases remain elusive.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the present study, a novel systems pharmacology approach was developed to decipher the potential mechanism between DSS and neurodegenerative disorders, implicated in oral bioavailability screening, drug-likeness assessment, target identification and network analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on a comprehensive systems approach, active compounds of DSS, relevant potential targets and targets associated with diseases were predicted. Active compounds, targets and diseases were used to construct biological networks, such as, compound-target interactions and target-disease networks, to decipher the mechanisms of DSS to address NDs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, a well-understood picture of DSS, hallmarked by multiple herbs-compounds-targets-pathway-cooperation networks for the treatment of NDs, was revealed. Notably, this systems pharmacology approach provided a novel in silico approach for the development paradigm of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the generation of new strategies for the management of NDs.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Animal, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510405, China.
authors.forename: Yunxia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510405, China. Electronic address: wqitcm@qq.com.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Animal, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510405, China. Electronic address: yongbinzhang@gzucm.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yongbin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001682:Biological Availability; D018938:Caco-2 Cells; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C531150:danggui-shaoyao-san
keywords: Atractylenolide I (PubChem CID:5321018); Atractylenolide III (PubChem CID: 155948); Danggui-shaoyao-san; Ferulic acid (PubChem CID: 445858); Neurodegenerative diseases; Pachymic acid (PubChem CID: 5484385); Poricoic acid B (PubChem CID: 5471852); Poricoic acid C (PubChem CID: 16757534); Systems pharmacology; TCM; Z-ligustilide (PubChem CID: 529865); kaempferol (PubChem CID: 5280863); ligustilide (PubChem CID: 5319022); α-Amyrin (PubChem CID: 73170)