Author(s)

Xi Zhou ¹, Paikun Cheng ², Lindan Xiao ³, Junhao Zhang ⁴, Xin Chen ⁵

Affiliation(s)

¹ Nanchong Central Hospital/The Second Clinical Medical College of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China
² Ziyang Environmental Science and Technology Vocational College, Ziyang, China
³ Dazhou Vocational College of Chinese Medicine, Dazhou, China
⁴ North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China
⁵ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China

Corresponding Author

Xin Chen

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to explore the effective active ingredients and specific mechanism of myrrh in the treatment of stroke. The research method is to obtain the main active ingredients of myrrh and their corresponding targets from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systematic Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), and standardize the gene names through the Uniport database. Four databases: OMIM, GeneCards, DrugBank and TTD were used to determine stroke disease genes, and the target genes of drug active ingredients and stroke disease genes were used to identify potential therapeutic targets for myrrh against stroke. Protein interaction (PPI) network of potential therapeutic targets was obtained through the String database, and the topology of the PPI network was analyzed through the CytoNCA plug-in in Cytoscape software, and the core key targets were selected. The biological information annotation database DAVID was used to conduct GO analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on potential treatment targets, and visualized through R language. The research results show that after the intersection of myrrh drug targets and stroke disease targets, 122 potential therapeutic targets were obtained, corresponding to 30 active ingredients. The core targets are IL6, TNF, TP53, IL1B, MAPK1, AKT1, ESR1, etc. GO analysis shows that the molecular functions involved in myrrh are as long as DNA binding transcription factors, ubiquitin-like protein ligase binding, cytokine receptor binding, activation of nuclear receptors and transcription factor activity. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis found that myrrh's role in treating stroke involves the IL−17 signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, etc. The research conclusions show that myrrh can treat stroke through multiple channels, multiple components and multiple targets. This experiment lays a foundation for further research on the efficacy of myrrh.

KEYWORDS

Network pharmacology, Stroke, Mechanism, Myrrh

CITE THIS PAPER

Xi Zhou, Paikun Cheng, Lindan Xiao, Junhao Zhang, Xin Chen, Exploring the mechanism of myrrh in treating stroke based on online pharmacology. MEDS Chinese Medicine (2025) Vol. 7: 41-50. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/medcm.2025.070106.

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