The mechanism of SiJunZi decoction in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, but treatment options for PD are limited, and drug development has reached a bottleneck. With the progress of the aging population, the number of PD patients in China is increasing day by day, imposing a heavy burden on patients and society. Therefore, it is urgent to explore targeted medicine based on the pathogenesis of PD and disease targets. Ancient physicians have used the traditional Chinese medicine formula SiJunZi decoction (SJZD) to treat PD. However, it is less commonly used clinically now, and its pharmacological mechanism still needs to be further elucidated. In this study, based on network pharmacology research and molecular docking technology, the mechanism of SJZD in treating PD was revealed, showing that the extract of SJZD acts on cell microdomain membranes and lipid rafts, affecting ubiquitin-protein ligase binding and ubiquitin-like protein ligase binding processes, and plays a role in neurogenesis. Molecular docking results showed that Ellipticine and Hederagenin in SJZD exhibited significant effects on targets: CASP3, BCL2, and PTGS2. The effect of SJZD reversing MPP⁺-induced SH-SY5Y cells injury was verified by experiments, concentrations ranging from 5ug/mL to 0.1ug/mL showed significant cell protection at 24 h.