An in-silico assessment suggests the potential effects of goji (fruit of Lycium barbarum L.) against aging-related diseases

Consuming herbal products as food and medicine have been accepted by people of different cultural backgrounds for sustaining healthy aging. The mechanism of anti-aging is mystery since the complex chemical composition of herbals as well as the systems reactions in organisms. Here, the anti-aging ingredients of goji are studied using a network pharmacology methodology. Metabolites of goji were collected based on the open databases, resulting in a database of potential targets. The aging-related targets were identified, which were further applied for Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. Afterwards, network analyses were performed to reveal the linkages between the aging-related genes and the related ingredients. The results show that 58 ingredients of goji are linked to 90 aging-related genes, and the genes and ingredients of greater importance are revealed by networks. This study provides a preliminary overview on the anti-aging ingredients of goji, which hints the potential effects of goji against aging-related diseases.