온라인강의

Finding of herbal medicine for infertillity in poilcystic ovary syndrome through network cluster analysis and animal experiment based on Korean Medicine clinical practice guidelines
강사명Go Woon Lee 강의시간5분 강의개설일2025-12-10
온라인강의

강의소개

Objectives: PCOS is a common and heterogeneous endocrine disorder and one of the causes of infertility. We analyzed herbal prescriptions for female infertility, as defined by pattern identifications in the Korean Medicine Clinical Practice Guidelines (KM-CPGs). By applying network analysis, we identified commonly used formulas, mapped key herb relationships, and explored core combinations. Based on the results of the network analysis, we investigated the therapeutic effects of Angelica gigas (AG), a medicinal herb frequently used in the treatment of infertility, using experimental rat model of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), complemented by network pharmacology and molecular docking analyses. Methods: We selected 18 prescriptions listed in Korean Medicine Clinical Practice Guidelines for female infertility and conducted a network cluster analysis to examine their interrelationships. Using Netminer 4, centrality analysis was conducted to identify influential nodes, and clustering analysis was employed to determine groups of herbs that are frequently used together. To confirm the efficacy of AG on PCOS, we constructed gene set related to AG and PCOS and performed functional protein network analysis to identify targets with the highest degree values. Eventually, the therapeutic effects of AG in PCOS were evaluated using an estradiol valerate-induced experimental rat model. The number of cystic follicles were counted in Hematoxylin and eosin-stained ovarian tissues. Results: The core herbs such as Angelica Gigas Radix, Paeonia lactiflora Pallas, Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer, and Cnidium officinale Makino also ranked high in centrality, indicating their significance in the treatment of infertility. Among them, AG is expected to regulate the AMPK pathway, longevity-regulating pathway, PI3K-Akt pathway, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, adipocytokine signaling and FoxO signaling in KEGG Pathways through enrichment analysis with its 11 core genes. And INS, LEP and IGF1 were selected as the 3 target genes with the highest value of decursin and decursinol, main components of AG. Molecular docking showed decursin and decursinol has high and stable binding affinities on INS, LEP and IGF1. Moreover, EV-induced PCOS rats exhibited the decrease of cystic follicle number with the regulation of AMPK signaling pathway, as well as inhibition of INS, LEP and IGF1 gene expressions in ovarian tissues. Conclusion: We confirmed the therapeutic effects of AG, which was suggested to be effective for infertility based on network cluster analysis. While our previous study investigated its relevance at the network analysis level, the present study further predicted its mechanisms using network pharmacology and molecular docking, and experimentally validated its therapeutic effects on PCOS. These results demonstrate that analytical approaches such as network pharmacology, clustering, and molecular docking can be effectively used to identify novel therapeutic prescriptions and hub targets for disease treatment.

강사소개

2022.03.-the present the stuent of Department of Korean Pharmacy, Woosuk University