The Suanzaoren Decoction improves cognitive impairment caused by sleep disturbance through estrogen receptor pathway, providing a basis for its clinical application.
The study initially explored the potential bioactive constituents and the operation mechanism of Suanzaoren Decoction (SZRD) in enhancing cognitive impairment through network pharmacology, molecular docking, and in vivo experiments. Network pharmacology and the literature were used to identify various Chinese herbs in SZRD and their disease-related targets. Gene ontology function enrichment analysis and pathway analyses of intersection targets were conducted using a relevant database. Following that, networks were built using the enrichment analysis results to further identify potential pathways, bioactive constituents, and hub genes. Additionally, molecular docking was employed to highlight the essential bioactive components and genes of SZRD accountable for improving cognitive impairment.
The different potential active components and intersection targets identified by network pharmacology screening were analyzed. The vital bioactive components and hub genes were identified through analyzing the networks and molecular docking outcomes. The estrogen signalling pathway was highlighted as the most important in the enrichment analysis. With the help of in vivo experiments, it was demonstrated that SZRD could enhance cognitive impairment by influencing the estrogen signalling pathway and the expression of specific genes. This affirmed the effectiveness of SZRD in improving cognitive impairment caused due to sleep disturbance.
