Objective: To investigate the therapeutic effect of patchouli alcohol on mice with lung-heat syndrome based on the phosphoinositide 3-kinase(PI3K)/protein kinase B(Akt)/nuclear factor-kappa B(NF-κB) signaling pathway. Methods: First, network pharmacology was used to predict the potential targets of patchouli alcohol in the treatment of lung-heat syndrome, and a "component-disease-key target" network was constructed for pathway analysis. Then, 40 BALB/c mice were assigned to the normal, lung-heat model, honeysuckle, and low-dose and high-dose patchouli alcohol groups. All groups, except the blank group, were intranasally infected with 50 μL (103 TCID50) of influenza virus solution. After two hours of infection, mice were treated once a day for seven consecutive days. The therapeutic mechanism of patchouli alcohol was explored by measuring pulmonary inflammatory factors, the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway, hypothalamic fever markers (PGE2, cAMP, cGMP levels), rectal temperature, and tissue energy metabolism. Results: Network pharmacology identified 135 target genes related to patchouli alcohol and lung-heat syndrome, with the key targets being STAT3, H1F1A, and NF-κB1. In animal experiments, patchouli alcohol significantly alleviated influenza virus-induced lung inflammatory damage in mice with lung-heat syndrome, inhibited the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 in lung tissues(P<0.01), and suppressed the activation of the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway. It also reduced hypothalamic levels of PGE2 and cAMP(P<0.01), suppressed the increase in rectal temperature, significantly decreased liver glycogen and pyruvate levels(P<0.01), and increased the activities of SDH, LDH, and Na+ -K+ -ATPase in the liver(P<0.01) Conclusion Patchouli alcohol improves the symptoms of lung-heat syndrome in mice by inhibiting the activation of the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway, reducing proinflammatory cytokines and inflammatory damage, and regulating hypothalamic fever markers and energy metabolism.

Objective:To explore the mechanism of Kechuan'an Oral Liquid in treating asthma based on network pharmacology; To carry out experimental verification.Methods:The effective components and targets of Kechuan'an Oral Liquid were obtained through TCMSP and literature search. The related targets of asthma were screened by GEO database, and the intersection targets of drug and disease were selected. The PPI network was constructed by STRING database, and the GO function and KEGG pathway were enriched and analyzed for key targets by DAVID database. The rats were divided into blank control group, model group and Kechuan'an Oral Liquid group according to the method of random number table. Kechuan'an Oral Liquid group received Kechuan'an Oral Liquid 12.34 ml/kg for gavage, and blank control group and model group were perfused with distilled water of the same volume for gavage, once a day for 3 days. The asthma model of rats was prepared by atomizing the mixture of acetylcholine chloride and histamine phosphate, and HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of lung tissue; Western blot was used to detect the protein expressions of IL-6, TLR4, MyD88 and TAK1, and the network pharmacological prediction results were verified.Results:A total of 153 active components, 1 896 targets and 2 982 differentially expressed genes of Kechuan'an Oral Liquid were screened out, and 25 intersection targets of drugs and diseases were obtained. The enrichment results showed that toll-like receptor signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway and Nod-like receptor signaling pathway were the main mechanisms of immune inflammation. Compared with the control group, the lung tissue of rats in the model group showed morphological changes such as thickening of air duct wall and infiltration of inflammatory cells, which were significantly improved in the Kechuan'an Oral Liquid group. Compared with the control group, the expressions of IL-6, TLR4, MyD88 and TAK1 in the model group significantly increased ( P<0.01), and compared with model group, the expressions of IL-6, TLR4, MyD88 and TAK1 in Kechuan'an Oral Liquid group significantly decreased ( P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusion:Kechuan'an Oral Liquid can inhibit toll-like receptor signaling pathway and mediate anti-inflammatory effect to treat asthma.