ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1511570
This article is part of the Research TopicPrevention and Treatment of Skin DiseasesView all 13 articles
Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Analysis on Molecular Targets and Mechanisms of Scar Healing Ointment in the Treatment of Hypertrophic Scars
Provisionally accepted
- Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
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Hypertrophic scars (HSs) are characterized by complex mechanisms and impose substantial economic and psychological burdens on patients with wounds. Recent studies have reported that various extracts from traditional Chinese medicines can help prevent and treat HSs. Scar healing ointment (SHO), a modified traditional Chinese prescription applied externally, has demonstrated potential in the clinical treatment of HSs, though its underlying mechanisms remain unexplored. In this study, we systematically identified the active ingredients of SHO formula and their potential targets using multiple databases and explored the possible underlying mechanisms by which SHO treats HSs using bioinformatic analyses. Our results indicated that the primary active ingredients in SHO formula include quercetin, beta-sitosterol, kaempferol, stigmasterol, luteolin, alloimperatorin, acacetin, and (E)-2,3-bis(7methoxy-2-oxochromen-8-yl)prop-2-enal. Protein-protein interaction network analysis revealed that the hub target proteins of the SHO formula are AKT1, MAPK1, CCND1, TP53, GSK3B, BCL2, CDKN1A, ESR1, and MYC. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed that these hub target genes are involved in processes and pathways related to apoptosis and responses to oxidants. Molecular docking analysis demonstrated that the MAPK1-stigmasterol and ESR1-alloimperatorin complexes exhibited strong binding affinities (-5.31 and -6.09) and formed multiple hydrogen bonds (3 and 2, respectively), suggesting that SHO may exert its effects by modulating MAPK1 and ESR1 proteins, thereby contributing to the prevention and treatment of HSs. This study offers new drugs and target candidates for the prevention and treatment of HSs and provides theoretical support for further research and application of the SHO formula. Nevertheless, additional in vivo and in vitro studies are necessary to validate these mechanisms.
Keywords: Hypertrophic scars, Traditional Chinese Medicine, scar healing ointment, Network Pharmacology, molecular docking
Received: 15 Oct 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiang, Zeng, Li and Wu. 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: Jingping Wu, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 610075, Sichuan Province, China
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