A study on the anti-osteoporosis mechanism of isopsoralen based on network pharmacology and molecular experiments

Objective: Osteoporosis (OP) is a disease caused by multiple factors. Studies have pointed out that isopsoralen (IPRN) is one of the most effective drugs for the treatment of OP. Based on network pharmacological and molecular experimental analysis, the molecular mechanism of IPRN in osteoporosis is clarified.

Methods: IPRN target genes and OP-related genes were predicted from the databases. Intersections were obtained and visualized. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed on target genes, which was confirmed by experiments internal and external experiments. Molecular docking was used to verify the binding between IPRN and target proteins. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulates the binding affinity of protein targets and active compounds.

Results: 87 IPRN target genes and 242 disease-related targets were predicted. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network identified 18 IPRN target proteins for the treatment of OP. GO analysis indicated that target genes were involved in biological processes. KEGG analysis showed that pathways such as PI3K/Akt/mTOR were associated with OP. Cell experiments (qPCR and WB) found that the expressions of PI3K, Akt, and mTOR in MC3T3-E1 cells at 10 μM, 20 μM, and 50 μM IPRN concentrations, especially at 20 μM IPRN treatment, were higher than those in the control group at 48 h. Animal experiments also showed that compared with the control group, 40 mg/kg/time IPRN could promote the expression of the PI3K gene in chondrocytes of SD rats.

Conclusions: This study predicted the target genes of IPRN in the treatment of OP and preliminarily verified that IPRN plays an anti-OP role through the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, which provides a new drug for the treatment of OP.

Isopsoralen; Molecular docking; Network pharmacology; Osteoporosis; PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway.