Analysing the role of Saraswatarishta in the treatment of neurological disorders based on network pharmacology

Abstract

Ayurvedic medications originated centuries ago and are still prevalent today. Saraswatarishta (SWRT) is a well-known ayurvedic formulation that is often prescribed to control the manifestations of neurological illnesses and disorders such as slurred speech, anxiety, Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease(AD). However, scientific research on its mode of action has not been studied extensively. Therefore, this study employs network pharmacology to understand better the neuroprotective role of Saraswatarishta (SWRT) in neurological disorders. Out of the 18 ingredients in SWRT, five were considered in this study due to their elevated therapeutic action in neurological disorders. Further, nine active phytoconstituents were chosen from the five selected ingredients. The gene targets of the active phytoconstituents were screened and selected using STITCH, SwissTargetPrediction and ChEMBL. Protein-Protein interaction and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis were carried out using STRING and g:Profiler, respectively. Cytoscape 3.7.2 was used to create three networks-the compound-target, the target-disease and the compound-target-disease network. Molinspiration and admetSAR2.0 were used to obtain the bioactivity scores and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) probability scores. The three networks indicated that all nine phytoconstituents were linked to the gene targets that encode proteins involved in the pathways of 10 major neurological disorders. This includes Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia, Huntington disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, spinocerebellar ataxia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  The gene targets were expressed significantly in various central nervous system regions such as the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and amygdala. The bioactivity scores of the phytoconstituents were in the active range along with high BBB probability scores, indicating that the phytoconstituents can potentially cross the BBB and impart therapeutic effects.