A Network Pharmacology-Based Approach to Explore Therapeutic Mechanism of Indian Herbal Formulation Nisha Amalaki in Treating Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Mohit Wadhawan, Varun Chhabra, Amit Kumar Katiyar, Vandna Sharma, Bharat Krushna Khuntia, Shubhangi Rathore, Punit Kaur, Gautam Kumar Sharma · Research Square · 2021
Abstract Nisha Amalaki (NA), an Indian herbal formulation consisting of two herbs, Curcuma longa and Emblica officinalis, has been commonly used to treat Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the pharmacological mechanism of NA remains unknown. In this study, a network pharmacology-based approach was used to explore its underlying mechanism. NA phytochemicals were collected from PubChem, KNApSAcK, IMPPAT, and ChEBI databases, and their potential targets were investigated using similarity ensemble approach (Tanimoto coefficient ≥ 0.6). A protein-protein interaction network was constructed to study the interactions among the targets and clustered into separate modules using NetworkAnalyst 3.0. A significant module (P ≤ .01) was identified, and DAVID web tool was utilized for the enrichment analysis. A total of 201 phytochemicals and 262 targets of NA were selected. Forty-five nodes of the significant module were identified as potential targets of NA. The enrichment analysis exhibited 27 biological processes and 78 pathways (P ≤ .01). Out of 45, 18 nodes were associated with T2DM as probable targets of NA. The metabolite-target-pathway network revealed that anti-diabetic effect of NA is a synergy of multi-target and multi-pathway efforts via regulation of glucose, lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, β-cell survival and proliferation, inflammation, apoptosis, and cell cycle.