ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioinform.
Sec. Drug Discovery in Bioinformatics
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbinf.2025.1613985
Identifying Novel Therapeutic Targets for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Using Bioinformatics Approaches: From Drug Repositioning to Traditional Chinese Medicine
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
- 2Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China
- 3Department of Gastroenterology, Changzhi People's Hospital, Changzhi, Shanxi Province, China
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Non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is widespread, yet effective therapies are scarce. This study harnesses bioinformatics to identify new therapeutic avenues for NAFLD. Three NAFLD-related gene expression datasets were retrieved and analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). A protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed, revealing key hub genes, including CXCL2, CDKN1A, TNFRSF12A, and HGFAC. Pathway enrichment analysis identified significant involvement of these genes in processes such as cell proliferation and the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Drug repositioning strategies highlighted cyclosporine as a potential repurposed drug, while traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) components, such as curcumin, resveratrol, and berberine, showed promising binding affinities to NAFLD-related targets. Molecular docking confirmed strong interactions between these TCM components and key genes. This study provides new insights into NAFLD treatment, suggesting cyclosporine as a candidate for repositioning and TCM compounds as complementary therapies. Further validation is needed to support these findings and guide future clinical applications.
Keywords: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, bioinformatics, Drug Repositioning, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Cyclosporine
Received: 18 Apr 2025; Accepted: 07 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Meng, Gao, Li and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tianwei Meng, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China
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