title: Insights into the molecular mechanisms of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb-induced liver injury: a computational systems toxicology approach.
abstract: An increasing number of cases of herb-induced liver injury (HILI) have been reported, presenting new clinical challenges. In this study, taking Polygonum multiflorum Thunb (PmT) as an example, we proposed a computational systems toxicology approach to explore the molecular mechanisms of HILI. First, the chemical components of PmT were extracted from 3 main TCM databases as well as the literature related to natural products. Then, the known targets were collected through data integration, and the potential compound-target interactions (CTIs) were predicted using our substructure-drug-target network-based inference (SDTNBI) method. After screening for hepatotoxicity-related genes by assessing the symptoms of HILI, a compound-target interaction network was constructed. A scoring function, namely, Ascore, was developed to estimate the toxicity of chemicals in the liver. We conducted network analysis to determine the possible mechanisms of the biphasic effects using the analysis tools, including BiNGO, pathway enrichment, organ distribution analysis and predictions of interactions with CYP450 enzymes. Among the chemical components of PmT, 54 components with good intestinal absorption were used for analysis, and 2939 CTIs were obtained. After analyzing the mRNA expression data in the BioGPS database, 1599 CTIs and 125 targets related to liver diseases were identified. In the top 15 compounds, seven with Ascore values >3000 (emodin, quercetin, apigenin, resveratrol, gallic acid, kaempferol and luteolin) were obviously associated with hepatotoxicity. The results from the pathway enrichment analysis suggest that multiple interactions between apoptosis and metabolism may underlie PmT-induced liver injury. Many of the pathways have been verified in specific compounds, such as glutathione metabolism, cytochrome P450 metabolism, and the p53 pathway, among others. Hepatitis symptoms, the perturbation of nine bile acids and yellow or tawny urine also had corresponding pathways, justifying our method. In conclusion, this computational systems toxicology method reveals possible toxic components and could be very helpful for understanding the mechanisms of HILI. In this way, the method might also facilitate the identification of novel hepatotoxic herbs.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Yin-Yin
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Zeng-Rui
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Endemic Phytomedicine Resources, Ministry of Education, Pharmacology Department, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832002, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Bin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Chun
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Gui-Xia
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Hua
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Key Laboratory of New Drug Design, School of Pharmacy, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D056486:Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury / Q000209:etiology*; D019295:Computational Biology; D062126:Databases, Chemical; D000068676:Fallopia multiflora / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D008954:Models, Biological; D014116:Toxicology