Background
Although the clinical effect of stir-fried Dolichos lablab L. kernel has been approved in modern traditional Chinese medicine, existing associated studies mainly focus on its clinical studies and chemical ingredients. However, there are few studies on pharmacodynamics material basis and molecular mechanism of stirfried Dolichos lablab L. kernel in treatment of type-2 diabetes(T2DM), thus restricting the further development and utilization of stir-fried Dolichos lablab L. kernel.
Methods
A qualitative analysis on saponin chemical ingredients of stir-fried Dolichos lablab L. kernel was performed using UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS. A total of 10 saponin ingredients were selected. Moreover, target screening, biological process and metabolism pathway analysis were accomplished by network pharmacology. Four key proteins
(EGFR, IGF1, MAPK1 and PIK3R1) of type-2 diabetes were selected for molecular docking verification with saponin ingredients. Specifically, molecular dynamics simulation of ingredients which have strong bindings with proteins was conducted.
Results
In this study, 16 saponin ingredients were identified from stir-fried Dolichos lablab L. kernel. There were 91 intersection targets and the KEGG pathway enrichment involved 20 relevant pathways. According to the molecular docking verification, saponin ingredients of stir-fried Dolichos lablab L. kernel can form stable binding with key protein targets. The molecular dynamics simulation further verifies stability and reasonability of the docking results.
Conclusions
This study provides references to identification of efficient ingredients of stir-fried Dolichos lablab L. kernel, screening of quality markers and explanation of relevant action mechanism by combining UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap MS and network pharmacology.