Background: Jiawei Shengjiang Powder (JWSJP) is a classical Chinese medicinal formula, which has been widely applied in the treatment of asthma and complications for many years due to its curative effect.
Aim: To verify the effect of JWSJP in improving abnormal sperm motility caused by asthma and to explore its potential mechanism.
Materials and Methods: The active compounds of JWSJP were obtained from high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology. The key active components and targets of JWSJP were predicted based on network pharmacological analysis and bioinformatics research. Rats were randomly divided into normal, model and treatment groups. The rat model of allergic asthma was induced by intraperitoneal injection of ovalbumin solution. The experiment judged improvement of semen quality by evaluating sperm motility, and detected the expression of related proteins in testicular tissue of Sprague-Dawley rats by RT-qPCR and Western blot methods. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the changes in testicular tissue structure in rats.
Results: Through the analysis of network pharmacology and bioinformatics, it was found that beta-sitosterol, quercetin, gallic acid, pelargonidin and kaempferol were the key active components of Jiawei Shengjiang Powder. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and insulin (INS) genes are crucial targets of JWSJP in the treatment of spermatogenic dysfunction caused by acute asthma. After 8 weeks of intervention, compared with the model group, the treatment group had significantly improved sperm motility (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in TNF, IL6, and INS proteins in the treatment group, and the HE staining of testicular tissue structure in the treatment group was significantly improved.
Conclusion: JWSJP can improve the abnormal sperm motility induced by asthma, and its mechanism may be related to the expression of related proteins and mRNA of TNF, IL6, and INS.
Keywords: Jiawei Shengjiang Powder, asthmatic attack, asthenospermia, network pharmacology