Pathway enrichment analysis of Chuan-wu for rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

With limited researches, there is still lack of pathway networks of Chuan-wu (also called Aconitum carmichaelii) against rheumatoid arthritis which might provide clues for further researches. In this study, started from the chemical compounds, proteins targeted by Chuan-wu were explored. After that, pathway networks enriched with these targeted proteins were analyzed with hypergeometric distribution on threshold ofp-value set to 0.001 for pharmacology mechanism. Meanwhile, pathway networks enriched with OMIM genes of rheumatoid arthritis were also calculated for pathology analysis in the same way. Then, these two pathway networks of pharmacology and pathology were merged into one for validation and further predictions. As a result, six pathway networks were predicted which might be responsible for the therapeutic effect against rheumatoid arthritis. They are: disease, signal transduction, metabolism of proteins, cell cycle, metabolism of proteins, and developmental biology.