# Network Pharmacology-Based Study on the Efficacy and Mechanism of _Lonicera japonica_ Thunberg
## 1 Introduction  
Over the past decades, drug development has involved considerable stages, including compound screening, mechanistic studies and cell and animal experiments, followed by human clinical studies. Conventional experimental methods, such as in vitro or in vivo experiments, have mainly been utilized to investigate the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic effects of herbs [1]. Although many reports have attempted to discover the mechanisms and efficacies of natural products for medicinal use, understanding the entire systemic functions of herbs is still challenging because of their numerous constituents and targets. Network pharmacology is known to be an emerging approach for investigating system-level mechanisms of drugs [2]. Recently, network pharmacology-based studies have been conducted to examine the integrated efficacies of herbs and to improve efficiency in pharmaceutical development [3; 4; 5]. They enable multiple components to be combined and system-level analyses to be performed with huge gene sets [6; 7; 8]. Based on data for chemical compounds and target genes, network-analytic methods have been used to predict potential pathways of herbs in several studies. The bioactive ingredients ofthe Huangqin-Baishao herb pair were identified and its anticancer mechanisms were revealed through a pharmacology approach [9]. The anti-proliferative effects of _polygonum cuspidatum_ on gynecological cancer cells were validated using a series of functional assays, which demonstrates that the network pharmacology approach is reliable and powerful enough to guide mechanistic studies of herbs [10]. Five core herbs (_Yanthusuo_, _Gouteng_, _Huangbai_, _Lianqiao_ and _Gancao_) were identified to have great potential against antineoplastic drug-induced cardiotoxicity based on network pharmacology and data mining [11].  
_Lonicera japonica_ Thunberg (LJ) has been used for therapeutic purposes, such as expopathogenic wind-heat, epidemic febrile diseases, sores, carbuncles, furunches and some infectious diseases, in traditional medicine [12]. LJ has been known to exert anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, anti-tumor and neuroprotective effects [13; 14; 15; 16; 17]. There is a report that LJ includes various chemical constituents, such as logainin, sieroside, rutin, luteoloside, lonicerin, centauroside and (E)-aldosecologanin [18]. Despite all the investigations that have been undertaken to identify the molecular mechanisms of LJ, the integrated therapeutic effects of LJ based on its components have not yet been fully clarified. The aim of the present study is to assess the potential efficacy and mechanisms of LJ through network pharmacological analysis. To begin with, the components of LJ were collected through open scientific databases. After that, a network for LJ was constructed to investigate correlations between components and features of LJ. Lastly, a functional enrichment analysis was performed to examine the specific mechanisms and potential efficacy of LJ. A literature study was also undertaken to confirm whether the results were reliable.