Integrative metabolomics and network pharmacology to study the preventative impact of dioscin treatment on hyperuricemia

Abstract This work aims to combine network pharmacology and metabolomics to explore the mechanism of action of dioscin on hyperuricemia (HUA). The preventative impact of dioscin on HUA and its putative mechanism were examined using network pharmacological analysis and metabonomics. Network pharmacology study further pointed out the potential targets of dioscin after a review of the relevant biomarker pathways discovered by metabolomic analysis. Molecular docking was then used to examine how the active chemicals interacted with the target proteins. The therapeutic effect of dioscin on HUA was shown to be mediated by 13 potentially important metabolites as a result of metabonomic research. Most of these metabolites are regulated after dioscin therapy to help patients recover. Based on network pharmacology, we identified 10 central genes, which is partly in agreement with metabolomics data. Using metabolomics and network pharmacology, this study investigated the primary targets and mechanisms of dioscin in the treatment of HUA. It is advantageous that dioscin has been developed as an additional drug for the treatment of HUA.