Molecular Mechanism of Common Phenolic Acids on Enhancing Immunity Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

Objective: To study the molecular mechanism of common phenolic acids on enhancing immunity by network pharmacology and molecular docking. Method: The potential targets of common phenolic acids were acquired from TCMSP database, STITCH database, and SwissTargetPrediction online target screening platform, and the component-target network map of common phenolic acids was constructed using Cytoscape 3.8.0 software. Then, candidate targets of each phenolic acids and known therapeutic targets of enhancing immunity were collected from the GeneCard database and OMIM database, and the overlapping genes were imported into STRING database for protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis to obtaining the key immune-enhancing targets. GO annotation and KEGG signal pathway enrichment of the key targets were analyzed using DAVID platform. Moreover, this study verified the key targets predicted by using AutoDock molecular docking. Results: The results indicated that there were 496 targets corresponding to 36 phenolic acid compounds and 16691 targets for enhancing immunity. At that time, 454 intersection targets were obtained, and these 454 targets were used as candidate targets for enhancing immunity of phenolic acid compounds, among which the key targets were SRC, MAPK1, HSP90AA1, AKT1, TP53, etc. Rosmarinic acid, methyl rosmarinate, ellagic acid, ethyl ferulate, and sinapic acid and so on were the main components that could enhance immunity. GO annotation and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that common phenolic acids played an immune-enhancing role through multiple pathways such as positive regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter, positive regulation of transcription, DNA-templated, negative regulation of apoptotic process, as well as signal pathways including pathways in cancer, proteoglycans in cancer, and MAPK signaling pathway. Moreover, the molecular docking analysis revealed that the core targets had good binding affinities with key components, which verified the accuracy of the prediction results of network pharmacology. Conclusion: This study revealed that common phenolic acid compounds played a role in enhancing immunity through regulating multiple targets and multiple pathways, laying a foundation for the development and further research of common phenolic acid compounds.