Exploring the Medication Rules and Mechanisms of Patent Application of Traditional Chinese Medicine Topical Ointment Against Gouty Arthritis Based on Data Mining and Network Pharmacology
Authors: Xu Liu 
Published: February 2025

Objective: Based on the patent database of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, to analyze the medication rule and mechanism of patent of Traditional Chinese Medicine （TCM）external ointment in the treatment of gouty arthritis (GA).

Methods: The database of patents for TCM external ointment on the treatment of GA were retrieved according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patent set of TCM external ointment on the treatment of GA were constructed after deduplication through Microsoft Excel 2019. The frequency, properties, flavors, meridian tropism were further performed to screen the core external Chinese medicine datasets in the treatment of GA. SPSS software was used for statistical analysis, correlation analysis, and cluster analysis, etc. Exploring the therapeutic targets and related pathways of GA core prescriptions through network pharmacology, and evaluating the binding ability and stability between potential key targets and active ingredients through molecular docking.

Result: (1) General situation: There are 33 Chinese medicine prescription patents included in the treatment of GA, involving 226 kinds of TCM. (2) Usage frequency: There are 19 TCM with a usage frequency of more than 5 times, among which the top three are: myrrh (17 times, 51.52%), frankincense (15 times, 45.45%), and white atractylodes (15 times, 45.45%), as the core traditional Chinese medicines. (3) Properties of TCM: TCM that are cold, warm, hard, and sweet are commonly used, mainly in the liver meridian, while those that promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis are most commonly used. (4) Association analysis of TCM: The top 5 drug pairs with the highest correlation are myrrh frankincense, myrrh baizhi frankincense, myrrh rhubarb frankincense, myrrh angelica frankincense, and myrrh safflower frankincense baizhi. (5) Cluster analysis: Three clusters of TCM were obtained. (6) Network pharmacology: Core TCM contains 58 active ingredients, corresponding to 75 targets. After intersecting with 246 GAs, 10 common targets were obtained. Through PPI network topology analysis, the main targets of core TCM for treating GAs may be PTGS2, PGR, NCOA2, NR3C2, HSP90AA1, etc. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis confirmed that the active ingredients of core TCM mainly act on related targets such as cAMP and interleukin-6, and treat GA through positive regulation of classical NF kappaB signaling transduction, positive regulation of RNA polymerase I transcription, positive regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B signaling transduction and other signaling pathways; Molecular docking shows good binding ability between key active ingredients and core targets.

Conclusion: Through multidimensional data mining analysis, it has been confirmed that most of the TCM topical ointments used to treat GA have the characteristics of promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, clearing heat, and detoxifying. The core active ingredients of TCM, beta sitosterol, stigmasterol, and quercetin, mainly act on targets such as PTGS2 and PGR to treat GA.