Abstract: BACKGROUND: Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction is widely used in the treatment of cervical spondylosis and some affective disorders, but its specific mechanism is still unclear.
OBJECTIVE: Through the methods of network pharmacology and molecular docking, to preliminarily discuss the common mechanism of Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction in the treatment of cervical spondylosis and anxiety disorder according to the treating principle of “treating different diseases with the same method.”
METHODS: We searched the pharmacology database of traditional Chinese medicine system from the inception to September 1, 2021, retrieving the effective active components and corresponding targets of five drugs in Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction. Genecards, OMIM, PharmGKB, TTD and drugbank databases were searched using the keywords of “cervical spondylosis” and “anxiety disorder” from their inception to September 1, 2021, and the disease targets of cervical spondylosis and anxiety disorder were mined. The key targets of Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction in the treatment of cervical spondylosis and anxiety disorder between components and disease targets were screened using R language to construct the active ingredient-target-disease and protein-protein interaction network through the Cytoscape 3.8.2 and STRING, as well as screen the common targets of network core. The intersection targets were obtained by GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment by R language. The Vina and PyMOL software were to establish molecular docking between common targets and main active ingredients in the protein-protein interaction network.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We screened 73 active components of Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction in total, including quercetin, kaempferol β-Carotene. There were 19 targets associated with the disease, and the key targets included interleukin-1β, TP53, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, mitogen activated protein kinase 1, etc. Molecular docking results showed that kaempferol could target and regulate interleukin-1β, TP53, and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α. GO preliminary analysis showed that the mechanism of Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction in the treatment of cervical spondylosis and anxiety mainly involved biological processes including reactive oxygen species metabolism, regulation of inflammatory response, oxidative stress response and cell apoptosis. KEGG results showed that according to the principle of “treating different diseases with the same method,” Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction played the therapeutic role in cervical spondylosis and anxiety disorder by regulating 126 common pathways such as interleukin-17 signal pathway, tumor necrosis factor signal pathway and mitogen activated protein kinase signal pathway. All these findings preliminarily reveal that Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction follows the principle of “treating different diseases with the same method” in the treatment of cervical spondylosis and anxiety disorder, which may play a role in regulating neuroimmune inflammation, antioxidant stress, cell apoptosis and other related biological processes through active components such as quercetin and kaempferol, so as to provide new ideas for clinical medication and theoretical basis for basic experiments.

Key words: Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction, cervical spondylosis, axiety disorder, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, apoptosis, treating different diseases with the same method, molecular docking, network pharmacology