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. 2021;22(1):90.
doi: 10.1186/s43042-021-00204-6. Epub 2021 Dec 13.

A hybrid systems biology and systems pharmacology investigation of Zingerone's effects on reconstructed human epidermal tissues

Elham Amjad #  1 , Babak Sokouti #  1 , Solmaz Asnaashari  1
Affiliations

A hybrid systems biology and systems pharmacology investigation of Zingerone's effects on reconstructed human epidermal tissues

Elham Amjad et al. Egypt J Med Hum Genet. 2021.

Abstract

Background: As individuals live longer, elderly populations can be expected to face issues. This pattern urges researchers to investigate the aging concept further to produce successful anti-aging agents. In the current study, the effects of Zingerone (a natural compound) on epidermal tissues were analyzed using a bioinformatics approach.

Methods: For this purpose, we chose the GEO dataset GSE133338 to carry out the systems biology and systems pharmacology approaches, ranging from identifying the differentially expressed genes to analyzing the gene ontology, determining similar structures of Zingerone and their features (i.e., anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and skin disorders), constructing the gene-chemicals network, analyzing gene-disease relationships, and validating significant genes through the evidence presented in the literature.

Results: The post-processing of the microarray dataset identified thirteen essential genes among control and Zingerone-treated samples. The procedure revealed various structurally similar chemical and herbal compounds with possible skin-related effects. Additionally, we studied the relationships of differentially expressed genes with skin-related diseases and validated their direct connections with skin disorders the evidence available in the literature. Also, the analysis of the microarray profiling dataset revealed the critical role of interleukins as a part of the cytokines family on skin aging progress.

Conclusions: Zingerone, and potentially any constituents of Zingerone (e.g., their similar compound scan functionality), can be used as therapeutic agents in managing skin disorders such as skin aging. However, the beneficial effects of Zingerone should be assessed in other models (i.e., human or animal) in future studies.

Keywords: Gene–chemicals network; Gene–disease association; Interleukin; Similar compounds; Skin disorder; Skin-aging; Systems biology; Systems pharmacology; Zingerone.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The overall workflow of the systems biology and systems pharmacology approaches
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a Chemical structure of zingerone [4-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) butan-2-one] as a zingiber constituent. b DEGs obtained from BRB-ArrayTools analysis
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
a The bioavailability radar chart of zingerone structure obtained from SwissADME prediction, b the small molecule protein targets for zingerone structure obtained from SwissTargetPrediction web server
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The gene–chemicals association network illustrating compounds directly connected with chemicals for skin-related disorders in green color. The involved genes are shown in purple
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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