Network Pharmacology of Microplastic-induced Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and its Therapeutic Potential of Curcumin via NF-kB

Network Pharmacology of Microplastic-induced Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and its Therapeutic Potential of Curcumin via NF-kB | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Network Pharmacology of Microplastic-induced Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and its Therapeutic Potential of Curcumin via NF-kB Iram Taalay, Imran Tarique, Muhammad Fiaz, Ubair Aziz, Muhammad Asghar This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9634970/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Microplastics from various sources, including everyday disposable products, break down into small particles due to environmental degradation and enter the human body through various routes. These particles can cross biological barriers and disperse into all body organs, where they act as endocrine disrupting agents, altering hormonal homeostasis and metabolic signaling pathways. Such disruptions are strongly associated with reproductive disorders including polycystic ovary syndrome. PCOS is a multifactorial endocrine disorder with no FDA approved cure and current clinical approaches are largely symptomatic. Therefore, it is important to find safe and effective therapeutic interventions targeting disease mechanisms. Curcumin is a natural polyphenolic compound; it had emerged as a potential treatment option. Here, we used a network pharmacology strategy to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of curcumin in PCOS pathology associated with airborne microplastics. Gene targets associated with PCOS, Curcumin, air pollution and microplastic were retrieved from different databases and Sixteen hub genes were annotated. Gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis confirmed that the NF-kB signaling pathway emerged as dominant pathway with most identified hub genes and this pathway was prioritized for further analysis. Molecular docking and MD simulation results confirmed stable binding interactions and supported the potential biological relevance of curcumin and proteins. Overall, this integrative study highlights microplastics as a potential contributor to endocrine and reproductive disorders. It further suggests curcumin as a promising treatment option for microplastic induced PCOS through modulation of NF-kB signaling networks. These findings confirm a mechanistic basis for future experimental and clinical validation. Microplastics PCOS Curcumin Network Pharmacology Molecular Docking NF-kB Pathway. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files PCOSSupplementaryFigure.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9634970","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":637640958,"identity":"4fea4dcc-8157-4515-8f48-ae81bbb760a8","order_by":0,"name":"Iram Taalay","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National University of Sciences and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Iram","middleName":"","lastName":"Taalay","suffix":""},{"id":637640959,"identity":"b497171c-81fe-4ccb-939f-9214ceef38ab","order_by":1,"name":"Imran Tarique","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National University of Sciences and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Imran","middleName":"","lastName":"Tarique","suffix":""},{"id":637640960,"identity":"57bade16-90aa-41e5-b64e-7540db379c5a","order_by":2,"name":"Muhammad Fiaz","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National University of Sciences and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Muhammad","middleName":"","lastName":"Fiaz","suffix":""},{"id":637640961,"identity":"777aaef0-a511-4997-9484-8a620edb60ae","order_by":3,"name":"Ubair Aziz","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National University of Sciences and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ubair","middleName":"","lastName":"Aziz","suffix":""},{"id":637640962,"identity":"782bfaa4-71e4-466d-8797-430e50eaf2f5","order_by":4,"name":"Muhammad Asghar","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABDUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACHjDJ2AAkmIFYzoCZgfEAQwEJWoyBWhgOMBiQoCVxAwMBLbozcg9+upljJ9vAfvzx64Kae+nb2ZkPALUcZpBvb8CqxexGXrJ07rZk4waeHDPrGceKc3c2syWAtRicOYBDS44BUAtzYgNDDpsxD1tC7obDPAYQLRIJuLQY/87dVp/YwP/8mTHPv4R0A5gW+fkPcGkxA9pyOLFBIsH4MW9bQgJcC8MN7N43O/PGzDp323HjNok3Zsy8fQmGYL8kGKTzGJzB4bDjOca3c7dVy/bzpz/+zPMtQd6c//DBBx8qrOXk27F7Hw7YgEgCzkuAxRcBwPyBGFWjYBSMglEw8gAAC1lfQZasB7IAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Lund University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Muhammad","middleName":"","lastName":"Asghar","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-05-06 21:08:18","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9634970/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9634970/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":109204823,"identity":"cbd9953f-3aed-4298-9081-7c9d6520e6e6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-13 15:02:25","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2937188,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"PCOSmanuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9634970/v1_covered_eadf920e-fa3d-497a-9a32-bb8c67f15366.pdf"},{"id":109118074,"identity":"8c4172aa-8a50-4338-bdc0-98d22537e2cf","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-12 16:49:02","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1109765,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"PCOSSupplementaryFigure.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9634970/v1/2bf3d180dc63fd9517246d35.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Network Pharmacology of Microplastic-induced Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and its Therapeutic Potential of Curcumin via NF-kB","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Microplastics, PCOS, Curcumin, Network Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, NF-kB Pathway.","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9634970/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9634970/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eMicroplastics from various sources, including everyday disposable products, break down into small particles due to environmental degradation and enter the human body through various routes. These particles can cross biological barriers and disperse into all body organs, where they act as endocrine disrupting agents, altering hormonal homeostasis and metabolic signaling pathways. Such disruptions are strongly associated with reproductive disorders including polycystic ovary syndrome. PCOS is a multifactorial endocrine disorder with no FDA approved cure and current clinical approaches are largely symptomatic. Therefore, it is important to find safe and effective therapeutic interventions targeting disease mechanisms. Curcumin is a natural polyphenolic compound; it had emerged as a potential treatment option. Here, we used a network pharmacology strategy to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of curcumin in PCOS pathology associated with airborne microplastics. Gene targets associated with PCOS, Curcumin, air pollution and microplastic were retrieved from different databases and Sixteen hub genes were annotated. Gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis confirmed that the NF-kB signaling pathway emerged as dominant pathway with most identified hub genes and this pathway was prioritized for further analysis. Molecular docking and MD simulation results confirmed stable binding interactions and supported the potential biological relevance of curcumin and proteins. Overall, this integrative study highlights microplastics as a potential contributor to endocrine and reproductive disorders. It further suggests curcumin as a promising treatment option for microplastic induced PCOS through modulation of NF-kB signaling networks. These findings confirm a mechanistic basis for future experimental and clinical validation.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Network Pharmacology of Microplastic-induced Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and its Therapeutic Potential of Curcumin via NF-kB","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-05-12 16:48:53","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9634970/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9d563536-5656-4709-8ade-99edccae383d","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 12th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"decision","content":"Rejected","date":"2026-05-10T11:46:37+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-05-08T02:47:41+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-05-08T02:47:12+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Molecular Biology Reports","date":"2026-05-06T21:00:36+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-12T16:49:15+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-05-12 16:48:53","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9634970","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9634970","identity":"rs-9634970","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}