Network Pharmacology-Based Systematic Analysis and Molecular Mechanisms of Banxia Xiexin Decoction for Chronic Atrophic Gastritis

Banxia Xiexin decoction, a traditional herbal mixture, has been widely used for chronic atrophic gastritis in clinical practice in China. However, research on the bioactive components and underlying mechanisms of Banxia Xiexin decoction in chronic atrophic gastritis is still scarce. Components and corresponding targets of Banxia Xiexin decoction were collected from the traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform. The chemical structures of each component were obtained from PubChem. Meanwhile, targets of chronic atrophic gastritis were collected from DrugBank and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man. Then, the herb-compound-target-disease network and the protein-protein interaction network were constructed based on the data obtained above. Cytoscape network centrality analysis was utilized to filter hub genes and VarElect was used to analyze the relationship between genes and diseases. At last, Metascape was employed for systematic analysis of the potential targets of herbals against chronic atrophic gastritis and AutoDock was applied for molecular docking to verify the results. A total of 214 components were screened as active components and there were 21 shared targets between Banxia Xiexin decoction and chronic atrophic gastritis. Two function modules of Banxia Xiexin decoction were found in the protein-protein interaction network. Further systematic analysis of shared genes and function modules explained the potential mechanism of Banxia Xiexin decoction in the treatment of chronic atrophic gastritis; molecular docking has verified the interactions. Banxia Xiexin decoction could be employed for chronic atrophic gastritis through mechanisms including complex interactions between related components and targets, as predicted by network pharmacology and molecular docking. This work confirmed that Banxia Xiexin decoction could apply for the treatment of chronic atrophic gastritis and promoted the explanation of Banxia Xiexin decoction for chronic atrophic gastritis in the molecular mechanisms.