Investigation of the Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Therapeutic Effect of L. Essential Oil on Acute Lung Injury Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry and Network Pharmacology.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism through which essential oil treats acute lung injury (ALI) through network pharmacology, molecular docking, and assays.

Methods: Relevant ALI targets of the active ingredients of essential oil were predicted using the SwissTargetPrediction database and meta TarFisher database. These ALI targets were then screened using GeneCards and DisGeNET, and differentially expressed ALI target genes were identified using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Next, key targets were enriched using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). Protein-protein interaction network analysis was performed to obtain targets with the highest degree values for molecular docking with essential oil active ingredients. For experiments, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to induce an ALI inflammation model using RAW264.7 cells. The model cells were then treated with essential oil to detect the protein expression levels of vascular endothelial factor (NO), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), and p65 nuclear transcription factor in them.

Results: Sixty-eight key targets of oil were identified for the treatment of ALI. These targets were found to be involved in biological processes related to peptides, response to lipopolysaccharides, the positive regulation of cytokine production, etc., using GO. The signaling pathways found to be associated with the targets included the AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, the NF-kappa B signaling pathway, and small cell lung cancer and other inflammatory signaling pathways. The five key targets that showed good binding activity with oil active ingredients included TNF, RELA, PARP1, PTGS2, and IRAK4. assays showed that essential oil could significantly reduce NO and TNF-α levels and inhibit the phosphorylation of nuclear transcription factor P65, thus inhibiting the activation of NF-κB signaling pathway. Conclusion essential oil can play a role in the treatment of ALI by inhibiting the activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway and preventing an excessive inflammatory response. This study thus provides a reference for the in-depth study of the mechanisms through which essential oil treats ALI.