Identification and mechanism elucidation of medicative diet for food therapy XQCSY in NAFLD prevention: an integrative in silico study

XingQiChuShiYin (XQCSY), a conventional Chinese medicine dietary therapy, is effective in preventing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but its effective constituents and functional mechanisms are yet vague for the reason conventional modes are not suitable. Therefore, this study is centered on exploring the NAFLD prevention mechanisms of XQCSY via an in-silico method. The potential targets of XQCSY and NAFLD are obtained from public databases, and there are 81 intersected targets. Then six key targets including RAC-alpha serine/threonine-protein kinase, tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-6, interleukin-1 beta, cellular tumor antigen p53, and epidermal growth factor receptor are screened from the “herb-compound-common target” network. Subsequently, Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis reveals that 513 of biological processes, 51 of cellular components, and 90 of molecular functions in XQCSY are related to the treatment of NAFLD. Results from network pharmacology show that XQCSY plays a pivotal role in preventing NAFLD with a “multicomponent-multitarget-multichannel” mechanism. Molecular docking also confirms active ingredients from XQCSY are well affinitive to the key genes and thus greatly affect NAFLD prevention. In conclusion, this research may provide a vital theoretical basis for determining the prevention mechanism of XQCSY on NAFLD.