Medication Rule and Mechanism of Action for the Treatment of Mumps Based on Data Mining and Network Pharmacology

Background: Mumps is a highly infectious acute respiratory infectious disease caused by mumps virus, which mainly occurs in children and adolescents. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) effectively alleviates the symptoms of mumps. Methods: Relevant literature on TCM for treating mumps was collected from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and data mining tools identified the core drug group. The TCMSP database retrieved the active ingredients and targets of the core drug group and through screening data from GeneCard, OMIM, PharmGkb, Drug Bank, and Uniprot disease databases to obtain common targets for drug and disease. The Cytooscape software constructed the “ingredients-targets” network. Meanwhile, the protein interaction database (STRING) constructed the potential target protein interaction network. The CytoNCA plug-in of Cytoscape screened the core targets. GO functional, and KEGG enrichment analyses of intersection targets were performed using the R statistical software. The molecular docking technology verified the relationship between the core ingredients and targets. Result: A total of 177 prescriptions were extracted from the CNKI literature, including 138 Chinese medicines. Forsythia suspensa, Isatidis Radix, and Scutellariae Radix were selected as the core drug group. Preliminary screening obtained 60 active ingredients and 23 common genes. The mechanism of action is related to the 94 significantly enriched pathway, including Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, Lipid and atherosclerosis, TNF signaling pathway, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway. The molecular docking results revealed that most of the combinations of the active components and core targets could form stable structures. Conclusions: The main active ingredients, action targets, and related pathways for treating mumps using Forsythia suspensa, Isatidis Radix, and Scutellariae Radix is discussed. The study confirmed the effects of Forsythia suspensa, Isatidis Radix, and Scutellariae Radix for treating mumps, providing a reference for clinical practice.