Aim: To holistically analyze the acupuncture anti-asthmatic mechanism based on bioinformatics analysis and text mining.
Methods: Literature searching across 7 databases restricted in the past decade regarding acupuncture treating asthma, text mining, the association network of meridian-acupoint-gene, hub genes and core acupoints, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis as well as 1 significant KEGG pathway visualization were performed by Cytoscape and R softwares.
Results: 30 studies with 71 genes were incorporated for bioinformatics analyses. The topological analysis of meridian-acupoint-gene network showed top 20 hub genes included immunoglobulin heavy constant epsilon (IGE), CD4 molecule (CD4), CD8a molecule (CD8), surfactant protein A1 (SFTPA1), interferon gamma (IFNG), interleukin 10 (IL10) and IL17A etc. The core acupoints were Feishu (BL13), Dazhui (GV14) and Fengmen(BL12). The significantly enriched GO terms were positive regulation of lymphocyte activation, regulation of immunoglobulin production etc. The enriched KEGG pathways included Asthma, T cell receptor signaling, IL-17 signaling, T Helper 1 (Th1) and Th2 cell differentiation etc. The visualized Asthma pathway contained 7 enriched genes.
Conclusion: The holistic networks of acupuncture-related anti-asthmatic meridian-acupoint-gene association and molecular mechanism were revealed by our data mining plus bioinformatics analysis, suggesting the current focus on the reversion of Th1/Th2, Th17/regulatory T (Treg) cells imbalanced ratio and anti-inflammatory action of acupuncture.
Key words: Acupuncture, asthma, bioinformatics, holistic analysis
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