Identification of Artemisia Argyi (AA) Therapy in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Using Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

This study aims to investigate the molecular mechanism of Artemisia argyi (AA) in the treatment of cognitive impairment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the docking activity of AA on potential therapeutic targets using network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques. Bioinformatic analysis showed that neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, the pathway of cancer, calcium signaling, neurodegeneration-multiple disease, and chemical carcinogenesis-receptor activation might be the related signal pathway in AA-AD. Moreover, the binding energy of AA active compounds to potential targets are ≦-4.16 kJ mol-1 with 10 patterns ≦-10 kJ mol-1 . The results of molecular docking showed that there would be a stable binding ability between the active components of AA and potential target genes. Among them, 24-methylenecyloartanone, beta-sitosterol, and Stigmasterol are active components with potential oral bioavailability (OB), drug-likeness (DL), and blood-brain-barrier(BBB) are screened out with the stable binding ability to target genes, which may be potential components of AA treatment for AD. This study laid an important foundation for further study of the molecular mechanism of AA treatment for AD.