Kushen Herpes Tincture confront senile herpes zoster by inhibiting STAT3 and EGFR

Abstract Objectives The study aimed to explore the potential mechanism of Kushen Herpes Tincture in treating herpes zoster in aging people based on network pharmacology. Methods Four herbs in Kushen Herpes Tincture were screened for transdermal active ingredients by TCMSP and HERB databases. Topological Polar Surface Area (TPSA) smaller than 60 Å square (Å 2 ) was used to screen the good at cell membrane-penetrating compounds. Potential targets of compounds were gathered from TCMSP, HERB, and SwissTargetPrediction. GeneCards and DisGeNET databases were used to screen herpes zoster-related targets. The targets were analyzed for protein interactions and KEGG enrichment. Among the top 20 targets, STAT3 and EGFR were subjected to cell experiment validation. Results Kushen Herpes Tincture was predicted to act on 51 herpes zoster-related targets. These targets were retraced to 103 cell membrane-penetrating compounds. Protein interactions proposed STAT3 and EGFR as two among the top 10 targets. The key KEGG pathway contained C-type lectin receptor signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, etc. STAT3 and EGFR were upregulated in human keratinocyte and human epithelial cells after varicella-zoster virus infection, while decreased by Kushen Herpes Tincture treatment. Kushen Herpes Tincture restricted varicella-zoster virus replication in vitro . Conclusions Kushen Herpes Tincture may exert its therapeutic effect on aging herpes zoster through multi-component action on multi-targets and multi-pathways, including STAT3 and EGFR.