title: In Silico Insight into Potential Anti-Alzheimer's Disease Mechanisms of Icariin.
abstract: Herbal compounds that have notable therapeutic effect upon Alzheimer's disease (AD) have frequently been found, despite the recent failure of late-stage clinical drugs. Icariin, which is isolated from Epimedium brevicornum, is widely reported to exhibit significant anti-AD effects in in vitro and in vivo studies. However, the molecular mechanism remains thus far unclear. In this work, the anti-AD mechanisms of icariin were investigated at a target network level assisted by an in silico target identification program (INVDOCK). The results suggested that the anti-AD effects of icariin may be contributed by: attenuation of hyperphosphorylation of tau protein, anti-inflammation and regulation of Ca(2+) homeostasis. Our results may provide assistance in understanding the molecular mechanism and further developing icariin into promising anti-AD agents.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China. zjcui@tongji.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhijie
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China. 1110628@tongji.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China. 1434316@tongji.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xinmiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China. zwcao@tongji.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Advanced Institute of Translational Medicine, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China. kltang@tongji.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Kailin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D062105:Molecular Docking Simulation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011485:Protein Binding; D020543:Proteome / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005419:Flavonoids; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D020543:Proteome; D016875:tau Proteins; C056599:icariin
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease (AD); INVDOCK; icariin; network pharmacology