Exploring the potential mechanisms of <i>Acer tegmentosum</i> Maxim in preventing alcoholic liver disease based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

To investigate the potential mechanisms of <i>Acer tegmentosum</i> Maxim (AT) in preventing Alcoholic liver disease (ALD), this study used network pharmacology and molecular docking methods to screen the main active ingredients of AT for preventing core target proteins related to ALD, conducted GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and performed molecular docking and visualisation. The results showed that AT’s top five active components were kaempferol-3-rhamnoside, salidroside, linoleic acid, ethyl linoleate, and tyrosol. The top five core target proteins for preventing ALD with AT were SRC, AKT1, STAT3, MAPK1, and ESR1. Gene enrichment analysis indicated that AT may inhibit the occurrence of ALD by improving inflammation and cancer pathways, and the core components of AT were well combined with critical targets, further elucidated the preventive mechanism of ALD through multiple components, targets, and pathways. It can provide a new idea for studying the mechanism of AT active ingredients to prevent ALD.