Anti-rheumatic effects of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F in a network perspective

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease that affects the joints, often those in a person´s wrists, fingers, and feet. In contrast to FDA-approved anti-RA drugs, Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), featured as multi-targeting, have been acknowledged with notable anti-RA effects although the pharmacology is unclear. In this work, we investigated the therapeutic mechanisms of TwHF at protein network level. First, RA-associated genes, the protein targets of FDA approved anti-RA drugs and TwHF were collected. Then we mapped the protein targets of TwHF on the drug-target network of FDA approved anti-RA drugs and KEGG RA pathway, based on these information and resources. Furthermore, we quantitatively analyzed the anti-rheumatic effect of TwHF and compared it with those of FDA approved anti-RA drugs by a network based anti-rheumatic effect score. Our study suggests that TwHF may function as a combination of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and its anti-rheumatic power could be comparable with that of anti-inflammatory agents. This study may facilitate our understanding of the RA treatment by TwHF from the perspective of network systems and it may suggest new approach for the study of TCM pharmacology.