Study on the Mechanism of Tiaogan Yunpi Decoction in Treating Diarrhea-Irritable Bowel Syndrome Based on Network Pharmacology

Tiaogan Yunpi Decoction (TGYPD) is a clinical experience commonly used by tutors to treat diarrhea-irritable bowel syndrome (D-IBS); it has been commonly employed to treat ulcerative colitis and chemotherapy-induced intestinal mucositis. However, the mechanism of TGYPD in D-IBS treatment remains unclear. In the present study, the potential mechanism of TGYPD for irritable bowel syndrome was tested by network pharmacology combined with the IBS rat model. On the whole, 56 active ingredients were screened out, and 238 assessed targets were identified; 1934 known disease targets regarding the occurrence and development of irritable bowel syndrome were successfully searched from the disease database. GO biological processes primarily impact cytokine receptor binding, transcription factor activity, cytokine activity, antioxidant activity, biosynthesis regulation, cell cycle regulation and other cellular active sites of irritable bowel syndrome. Besides, the mentioned processes are involved in AGE- RAGE signaling pathway, TNF and IL-17 signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor (TLRs) signaling pathway, multiple cancer signaling pathways, and viral key signaling pathways of infection, hepatitis and endocrine resistance. As reported by the protein interaction network (PPI), IL-6, CXCL8, VEGFR, JUN, MAPK3 and AKT1 are likely to act as the critical targets for TGYPD to treat IBS. Moreover, in the model of IBS-D rats, TGYPD is capable of significantly reducing stool Bristol type and AWR scores, as well as effectively decreasing TNF-αand IFN-γ. As revealed from colon pathological section, TGYPD can relieve intestinal damage and mitigate intestinal mucosal immune inflammation. As suggested from the results of the Western blotting assay, TGYPD is capable of suppressing the expression of TLR4-MYD88-NF-kB signaling pathway in intestines. In brief, the results achieved in this study suggest that TGYPD can significantly mitigate immune inflammation and protect against intestinal mucosal barrier in the intestines of the IBS-D rat model. This study provides novel insights that can be referenced by other TCM studies.