Network Pharmacology and molecular docking approach to unveil the mechanism of Hypericum perforatum in the management of Alzheimer's disorder

Abstract

The pathogenesis of Alzheimers disease (AD) is not fully understood which limits the availability of safer and more efficient therapeutic strategies for the management of AD. There has been growing interest in recent years in exploring the potential of herbal medicines as a source of safer and alternative therapeutic strategies for the management of AD. This study aims to discover the mechanism of Hypericum perforatum in the management of AD using network pharmacology and molecular docking approach. The results of network pharmacology suggest that 39 bioactive molecules of H. perforatum target 127 genes associated with AD, amongst which ATP-dependent translocase, acetylcholinesterase, amyloid-{beta} precursor protein, {beta}-secretase 1, carbonic anhydrase 2, dipeptidyl peptidase 4, epidermal growth factor receptor, tyrosine-protein phosphatase non-receptor type 1, -synuclein, and vascular endothelial growth factor A seems to be the prominent target of these molecules. Further, the results of molecular docking predicted amentoflavone, I3,II8-biapigenin, rutin, miquelianin, quercetin, luteolin, and nicotiflorin as a promising modulator of target proteins which were determined from network pharmacology to be associated with AD. Our findings suggest that H. perforatum could be a safer and more promising alternative therapeutic strategy for the management of AD by targeting multiple pathways of AD pathogenesis.