Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 7, 2018; 24(13): 1398-1409
Published online Apr 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i13.1398
Systems pharmacology approach reveals the antiinflammatory effects of Ampelopsis grossedentata on dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis
You-Lan Chen, Ya-Li Zhang, Yan-Cheng Dai, Zhi-Peng Tang
You-Lan Chen, Ya-Li Zhang, Zhi-Peng Tang, Institute of Digestive Disease, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200032, China
You-Lan Chen, Yan-Cheng Dai, Zhi-Peng Tang, Department of Gastroenterology, Longhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200032, China
Author contributions: Chen YL performed the majority of experiments and drafted the paper; Zhang YL participated in the treatment of animals; Dai YC analyzed the data; Tang ZP designed and coordinated the research; all authors have approved the final version of the article to be published.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Institute of Digestive Disease, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (IACUC Protocol Approval Number: SZY201710004).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: Supplementary data accompanying this paper are included in the Supplementary information file.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Zhi-Peng Tang, MD, PhD, Professor, Director, Institute of Digestive Disease, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 725 South Wanping Road, Shanghai 200032, China. zhipengtang@sohu.com
Telephone: +86-21-64385700 Fax: +86-21-64385700
Received: January 27, 2018
Peer-review started: January 28, 2018
First decision: February 10, 2018
Revised: February 12, 2018
Accepted: March 3, 2018
Article in press: March 3, 2018
Published online: April 7, 2018
Processing time: 67 Days and 9.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Ulcerative colitis (UC), as a recurrent chronic inflammatory disease, greatly affects the quality of life of patients, which brings an enormous challenge for both individuals and society worldwide. However, the etiology of UC is still unknown and conventional medical treatments for UC are not fully curative. Thus, promising and novel therapeutic strategies are imperatively needed and should be explored for UC.

Research motivation

Inflammation is a major factor for the progression of UC, and studies have confirmed that a great deal of natural medicines are intended for inhibition of various chronic inflammation-associated diseases, such as Ampelopsis grossedentata (AMP). Thus, we explored the mechanisms of therapeutic effects of AMP on UC, and provided a valid complementary treatment to the standard therapy.

Research objectives

To investigate the underlying mechanisms of protective effects of AMP on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis.

Research methods

As an emerging approach, systems pharmacology was performed in this study to explore the systematic effects of AMP on DSS-induced colitis by active compound screening, target fishing, network construction and analysis.

Research results

The study revealed an antiinflammatory effect of AMP against DSS-induced colitis based on systems pharmacology and animal experiments.

Research conclusions

AMP could exert beneficial effects on DSS-induced colitis via suppressing inflammation-related signaling pathways.

Research perspectives

Since UC is an inflammatory condition combined with a large amount of other biological processes, we determined the inflammatory-related signaling pathways in this study. Other biological processes and signaling pathways as well as the systematic effects of AMP on UC were still unknown and need to be explored in further studies.