Synthesizing network pharmacology, bioinformatics, and in vitro experimental verification to screen candidate targets of Salidroside for mitigating Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological disorder leading to cognitive deficits. Salidroside (Sal), a primary bioactive ingredient extracted from the roots of Rhodiola rosea L., has potent neuroprotective effects in AD. However, studies on potential targets for Sal-anchored AD are limited. In this study, we combined network pharmacology, bioinformatics, and experimental validation to identify potential targets of Sal treating AD. First, we screened 10 pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) in Sal and AD using public databases. Then, we used Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis to explore the biological functions of the shared PRGs (Sal and AD). This finding exhibited that pathways linked to inflammation, like the nucleotide oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptors signaling pathway, are important for Sal to help fight AD. The GeneMANIA functional results subsequently revealed an association between AD and the processes of inflammasome complex and inflammatory response. Additionally, nine hub genes were identified in the protein-protein interaction network of these shared PRGs. Subsequent analysis of the genes and phenotypes confirmed that these nine hub genes were directly correlated with AD. Subsequently, an in vitro AD model was created using rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cell line (PC12) cells induced by amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) 25-35 (20 µM). Sal significantly reduced the pyroptosis caused by Aβ 25-35 in PC12 cells and decreased the expression levels of IL-1β, CASP1, IL-18, PYCARD, and NLRP3. Furthermore, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that Sal could stably bind to NLRP3. Druggability analysis revealed that Sal had excellent druggability. These results demonstrated that Sal could alleviate AD by targeting IL-1β, CASP1, IL-18, PYCARD, and NLRP3 to regulate the NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis signaling pathway.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Molecular docking; Molecular dynamics simulation; Network pharmacology; Pyroptosis; Salidroside.