Prediction and validation of potential targets for Alzheimer's disease treatment using ferulic acid
Objective To predict the potential targets of ferulic acid in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease(AD)using bioinformatics and molecular biology,and investigat its efficacy in AD.Methods The methodology involved obtaining genes associated with the interaction between AD and ferulic acid from the DisGeNET and PubChem databases,conducting GO/KEGG enrichment analysis of common targets using the DAVID online database,and establishing a protein-protein interaction network to identify key genes through the STRING database;And analyzing the expression of key genes through Western blotting and ELISA.Results After identifying 38 common interaction targets,the construction of a protein-protein interaction network revealed the top three genes,namely MMP9,TLR4,and ACE.In Western blotting and ELISA,ferulic acid was found to downregulate the expression of MMP9,TLR4,and ACE(P<0.05).Conclusion The results suggest that MMP9,TLR4,and ACE may serve as potential therapeutic targets for ferulic acid in the treatment of AD.