Study on the regulatory effect of Ligusticum chuanxiong on inflammation of human dermal papilla cells in alopecia areata based on network pharmacology and in vitro experiment

Ligusticum chuanxiong (CX) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for treating alopecia areata (AA). This study explored the molecular mechanism of CX active components for treating AA. In our study, we identified 13 potential targets of CX for treating AA. These targets include IL6, IL1B, IL10, IFNG, CCL2, TNF, INS, IL4, CRP, TGFB1, ALB, TP53, and BDNF.GO analysis identified 2014 meaningful items. Enriched pathways included JAK-STAT and others related to AA pathogenesis. The molecular docking results indicate that BDNF binds strongly with Thymol, the binding activity being -7.2 kcal/mol. Molecular dynamics simulations showed a good binding capacity between Thymol and BDNF. The CCK8 results indicated that thymol positively affects hDPCs by reducing the inhibitory effect of interferon-γ. According to RT-PCR results, it was found that thymol can inhibit inflammatory cytokines in hair follicle (HF) cells. The Western blot assay results showed that Thymol decreased key protein expression in the JAK-STAT signalling pathway, which is linked to AA. Through network pharmacology, molecular verification and cell experiments, we preliminarily confirmed the potential mechanism of thymol in treating the AA cell model.