BACKGROUND:Total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens have a variety of pharmacological effects,including anti-inflammatory,immunomodulatory,antioxidant,and anti-hepatic injury,but the therapeutic effects and mechanisms in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are not clear.OBJECTIVE:To reveal the mechanism of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease using bioinformatics,network pharmacology and zebrafish experimental validation.METHODS:A zebrafish model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was constructed to observe lipid accumulation,pathomorphologic changes,and expression of inflammatory genes in the liver of zebrafish after treatment with total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens.The active ingredients of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-related targets were obtained from TCMSP,Swiss Target Prediction,and Bat-man databases.STRING was used to perform protein-protein interaction network analysis,GO functional enrichment and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis.Based on the GSE33814 dataset,the differentially expressed genes of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease intersection targets were screened out.Correlation analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve were performed using R4.3.2 software.Core genes were verified by the validation set GSE89632.RT-qPCR and western blot assays were performed to verify the expression of core pathway-related genes and proteins.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens could improve lipid accumulation in the liver of zebrafish with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,significantly inhibited the elevation of lipid and aminotransferase levels in zebrafish(P<0.05),and regulated the expression of genes related to inflammation and lipid metabolism.(2)A total of 168 common targets were obtained using the network pharmacology,and top 10 core genes,identified by Cytoscape topology analysis,were HSP90AA1,STAT3,PIK3R1,MAPK1,AKT1,RXRA,PIK3CA,EGFR,JAK2,and ESR1.GO and KEGG analysis pathways mainly included insulin resistance,lipids,and atherosclerosis.There were a total of 59 differentially expressed genes after intersection of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease targets.The receiver operating characteristic curve and validation set analyses yielded six core targets that were significantly different between healthy individuals and patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(P<0.01).(3)RT-PCR and western blot results verified that total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens inhibited the activation of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in zebrafish.To conclude,total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens may alleviate the inflammatory response through the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway,thus inhibiting lipid accumulation and improving non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Objective : To explore the causal relationship between 46 phenotypes ( including 15 seropositive case- control phenotypes and 31 quantitative antibody-measurement phenotypes) and ulcerative colitis( UC) using two- sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization( TSMR) . Methods: Single nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNPs) sig- nificantly associated with the relative abundance of the 46 antibody sera were extracted as instrumental variables ac- cording to preset thresholds . Summary statistics for UC were obtained from the OPEN GWAS database ( n = 47 745) . MR-Egger regression , weighted median method ( WME) , inverse variance weighting ( IVW) , the simple mode method (SM) , and weighted multitude method (WM) were used to estimate the causal relationship between antibody levels and UC , primarily using the IVW method . The results were assessed according to the effect indica- tor dominance ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) . Sensitivity analysis , heterogeneity test , gene plei- otropy test , and outlier test (MR-PRESSO) were combined to verify the stability and reliability of the results , and the causal association study was performed again using reverse Mendelian randomization(MR) . Results : IVW re- sults showed that Epstein-Barr( EB) virus EA-D antibody levels ( OR = 0. 806 , 95% CI = 0. 693 - 0. 939 , P < 0. 01) , Epstein-Barr virus EBNA-1 antibody levels ( OR = 1 . 870% , 95% CI = 1 . 480 - 2. 360 , P < 0. 000 1) , Anti-polyomavirus 2 IgG seropositivity (OR = 0. 570 , 95% CI = 0. 435 - 0. 746 , P < 0. 000 1) were associated with UC . The inverse MR analysis revealed a causal effect on anti-polyomavirus 2 IgG seropositivity , and none of the a- bove revealed genetic pleiotropy or significant heterogeneity of IVs . Conclusion EB virus EBNA-1 antibody levels are positively associated with the risk of UC , while EB virus EA-D antibody levels and anti-polyomavirus 2 IgG se- ropositivity are negatively associated with the risk of UC , indicating that they are protective factors for UC .

BACKGROUND:Total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens have a variety of pharmacological effects,including anti-inflammatory,immunomodulatory,antioxidant,and anti-hepatic injury,but the therapeutic effects and mechanisms in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are not clear.OBJECTIVE:To reveal the mechanism of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease using bioinformatics,network pharmacology and zebrafish experimental validation.METHODS:A zebrafish model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was constructed to observe lipid accumulation,pathomorphologic changes,and expression of inflammatory genes in the liver of zebrafish after treatment with total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens.The active ingredients of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-related targets were obtained from TCMSP,Swiss Target Prediction,and Bat-man databases.STRING was used to perform protein-protein interaction network analysis,GO functional enrichment and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis.Based on the GSE33814 dataset,the differentially expressed genes of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease intersection targets were screened out.Correlation analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve were performed using R4.3.2 software.Core genes were verified by the validation set GSE89632.RT-qPCR and western blot assays were performed to verify the expression of core pathway-related genes and proteins.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)Total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens could improve lipid accumulation in the liver of zebrafish with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,significantly inhibited the elevation of lipid and aminotransferase levels in zebrafish(P<0.05),and regulated the expression of genes related to inflammation and lipid metabolism.(2)A total of 168 common targets were obtained using the network pharmacology,and top 10 core genes,identified by Cytoscape topology analysis,were HSP90AA1,STAT3,PIK3R1,MAPK1,AKT1,RXRA,PIK3CA,EGFR,JAK2,and ESR1.GO and KEGG analysis pathways mainly included insulin resistance,lipids,and atherosclerosis.There were a total of 59 differentially expressed genes after intersection of total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease targets.The receiver operating characteristic curve and validation set analyses yielded six core targets that were significantly different between healthy individuals and patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(P<0.01).(3)RT-PCR and western blot results verified that total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens inhibited the activation of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in zebrafish.To conclude,total flavonoids from Sophora flavescens may alleviate the inflammatory response through the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway,thus inhibiting lipid accumulation and improving non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.