Abstract: Objective  To explore the potential mechanisms of Scutellaria baicalensis in the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis based on network pharmacology approach. Methods  The active ingredients of Scutellaria baicalensis were screened on the traditional Chinese medicine systematic pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP), traditional Chinese medicine integrated pharmacology research platform (TCMIP), and bioinformatics analysis tool for molecular mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicines (BATMAN-TCM). The targets of the active ingredients of Scutellaria baicalensis were collected by using the Swiss Target Prediction database； The GeneCards, online Mendelian inheritance in man (OMIM), gharmGKB and DrugBank databases were used to screen the relevant targets of chronic rhinosinusitis. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks between active ingredient targets and disease targets were constructed via the search tool for the retrieval of interaction gene/proteins (STRING) database. The Cytoscape 3.10.0 software was used to screen the core targets； Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses were performed to explore the biological processes and signaling pathways related to the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis with Scutellaria baicalensis. Autodock tools 1.5.7 was used to molecularly dock the top 4 key targets and the top 4 active ingredients. Results  A total of 35 Scutellaria baicalensis active ingredients and 1 743 disease targets related to chronic rhinosinusitis were collected, including 121 cross-targets. A total of 28 core targets and 4 key targets were obtained by PPI network analysis. GO functional enrichment indicated that the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis by Scutellaria baicalensis mainly involves biological processes such as lipopolysaccharide, protein tyrosine kinase activity, membrane rafts, membrane microregions and membrane regions. KEGG pathway enrichment suggests that it is mainly closely related to  phosphoinositide 3-kinase-Serine/Threonine-protein kinase (PI3K-Akt) signaling pathway, advanced glycation end product-receptor of advanced glycation endproducts (AGE-RAGE) signaling pathway, reliability, availability and serviceability signaling pathway (Ras) signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway and so on. Epiberberine docked well with phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit δ(PIK3CD). Conclusion  This study demonstrated that Scutellaria baicalensis can treat chronic rhinosinusitis through multiple active ingredients, multiple targets, and multiple signaling pathways.

Key words: Scutellaria baicalensis, chronic rhinosinusitis, network pharmacology, therapeutic mechanism