Abstract
This study aims to analyze the effective components of Polygonum capitatum (PC) inhibiting Escherichia coli based on network pharmacology methods and predict its molecular mechanism of action. PC compounds and targets were collected from the TCMSP database, Swiss Target Prediction, and the literature. E coli targets were searched using the GeneCards database. The targets of E coli and the targets of the active ingredients of PC were taken as intersections to obtain the intersecting targets. The resulting overlapping targets were uploaded to the STRING database to construct the protein interaction network diagram of E coli target inhibition. The key targets for the inhibitory effect of PC on E coli were obtained. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analyses were performed by uploading key targets into the DAVID database. The results showed that there were 50 targets for PC to inhibit E coli. Among them, there are 5 core targets, mainly including AKT1, TNF, EGFR, JUN, and ESR1. A total of 196 gene ontology functional analysis results and 126 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis results were obtained. These include cellular response to cadmium-ion, cellular response to reactive oxygen species, pathways in cancer, prostate cancer, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Molecular docking results indicate that Lutedin, Hirsutin, Flazin, and Ellagic acid in PC have high affinity for the target genes AKT1, TNF, MAPK3 and EGFR. PC exerts its inhibitory effect on E coli through multi-targets and multi-pathways, which provides a new basis for the new use of PC as an old medicine.