A network pharmacology-based approach to investigate the targets and mechanisms of action of Lycium barbarum in the treatment of the dry eye.

In July 2022, the chemical composition of Lycium barbarum was collected through the TCMSP database, and the active ingredients were screened. The OMIM and GeneCards databases were used to obtain the target genes related to dry eye, and the common target of "Lycium barbarum-dry eye" was obtained as the key gene through Venny diagram. The STRING database was used to construct the "disease-traditional Chinese drug-component-target" network and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and the core genes were obtained based on the Degree algorithm by using Cytoscape 3.9.0 software. Gene ontology (GO) and the Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) were conducted into analysis.

Lycium barbarum screened 31 active compounds with 45 targets; dry eye screened 875 target genes and obtained 403 intersecting genes after taking the intersection. The top 12 core proteins were HIF1A, EGFR, IL-6, MYC, VEGFA, CASP3, CCND1, ERBB2, PPARG, FOS, NFKBIA, CASP8, etc. Seventy-one GO function enrichment results were obtained, mainly related to the regulation of cellular inflammatory factors, apoptosis, immune response, etc. KEGG pathway enrichment results totaled 97, mainly related to lipid and atherosclerosis, cancer pathways, chemo-oncogenic-receptor activation, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection, PI3K-Akt, NF-kappa-B, VEGF, AGE-RAGE, and other signaling pathways.

Lycium Barbarum may be used to reduce the ocular surface inflammatory response and improve symptoms and clinical indices through the effects on genes such as EGFR, IL-6, VEGFA, CASP3 and the modulation of signaling pathways such as cancer pathway, PI3K-Akt, NF-kappa-B, VEGF, AGE-RAGE.

Lycium barbarum; dry eye; network pharmacology; target; mechanism of action