Bioinformatics analysis for Taohe Chengqi Decoction in treating diabetic kidney disease and cutaneous pruritus based on the theory of “same treatment for different diseases”

Taohe Chengqi Decoction (THCQD) is a traditional Chinese prescription. Clinical trials have confirmed that THCQD can be used to treat cutaneous pruritus (CP), such as chronic urticaria, by draining down stagnant heat, and meta-analysis has found that in diabetic kidney disease (DKD), it can further improve the efficiency of Western medical treatment, reduce the total amount of 24 hours urinary protein, blood creatinine, and urinary albumin excretion rate, and improve the quality of life of patients. However, the exact pharmacological mechanism by THCQD improves DKD and CP remain unclear due to the complexity of its ingredients. We used network pharmacology approaches, including multi-database search, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, gene ontology enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis and molecular docking to elaborate the active components, signaling pathways and potential mechanisms of THCQD in the treatment of DKD and CP. 114 active ingredients and 87 intersection targets of THCQD and diseases have been found through integrated network pharmacology. And by combining the data, we found the top 5 active ingredients, including beta-sitosterol, 7,2',4'-trihydroxy-5-methoxy-3-arylcoumarin, sitosterol, kaemp ferol and naringenin. Through PPI analysis, TNF, ALB, IL1B, AKT1 and TP53 were identified as the key therapeutic targets. In addition, the underlying effect of the pathways in cancer, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway are also suggested in the treatment. By validation of molecular docking, finding that the central therapeutic targets have good affinities with the main compounds of THCQD. This study successfully predicts the active compounds, potential targets, and signaling pathways of THCQD in the treatment of DKD and CP. These findings provided an important scientific basis for further research of the mechanism of THCQD in the treatment of DKD and CP.