In this study, systems pharmacology was established to investigate the relationship between Epimedium and estrogen against osteoporosis by integrating active component screening, drug-likeness evaluation, herb feature mapping, target prediction and validation, and network analysis.
A total of 77 active components that possessed similar structural features to estrogen as determined using herb feature mapping were selected from Epimedium by oral bioavailability prediction and drug-likeness evaluation. Twenty three osteoporosis-related targets were obtained from the active components of Epimedium as potential targets, 11 of which were common targets with estrogen. All osteoporosis-related targets were further mapped to compound–target and target–pathway networks. Results displayed that Epimedium can exert anti-osteoporosis effects by directly regulating the 11 estrogen-related targets and a set of target proteins on five estrogen-related pathways.
This study explained the estrogen-like mechanism of Epimedium in preventing and treating osteoporosis, and provided a new standpoint for exploring the traditional herbal medicine against osteoporosis.