ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1591558
Interaction of Blood-Entry Components, Network Pharmacology and Transcriptomics to Elucidate the Mechanism of Wentong Plaster in Treating Primary Dysmenorrhea
Provisionally accepted
- 1Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
- 2Shandong Academy of Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
- 3Jining Medical University, Jining, Shandong, China
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Primary dysmenorrhea (PD) is characterized by pain during the menstrual cycle, affects women's health. Our group developed a traditional Chinese medicine plaster (Wentong plaster, WTT) for the treatment of PD. However, the underlying mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. In this study, the blood-entry components of WTT were detected using UPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap-MS, and the therapeutic functions of WTT on PD were evaluated by the writhing response, pathological analysis, and the levels of estrogen, nitric oxide, progesterone, among other indicators. Network pharmacology and transcriptomics were used to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Finally, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and western blotting were used to determine the levels of relevant indicators. Our findings indicate that 49 original blood-entry components were detected. Meanwhile, WTT upregulated the level of NO, and downregulated the levels of PGF2α, PGE2, estrogen, and progesterone, thereby increasing blood flow, alleviating inflammatory responses, and inhibiting the writhing response. Results from network pharmacology and transcriptomics analyses indicated that WTT could increase the expression of Lcn2 and decrease the expression of Cxcl6 and IL-17, thereby regulating the IL-17 signaling pathway, and alleviating inflammation to treat PD. This study provides a basis for further research on the mechanism of WTT, and offers a reference for its clinical application.
Keywords: Wentong plaster, Primary dysmenorrhea, Mechanism, Network Pharmacology, Transcriptomics
Received: 11 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Jiao, Wang, Li, Yuan, Sui, Wang and Hou. 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: Cheng Wang, Shandong Academy of Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
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