Exploring the Mechanism of Qingzhen Decoction in Treating Migraine Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Technology
Migraine is a common neurological disorder in clinical practice, characterized by recurrent pulsatile headaches on one or both sides, often accompanied by autonomic symptoms such as pale complexion, nausea, and vomiting. The duration of the attack is generally 4-72 hours, which imposes a heavy burden on families and society. According to epidemiology, migraine has a global prevalence of 11.6% and is one of the main chronic diseases causing disability in humans. At present, Western medicine treatment for migraine mainly adopts acute pain relief and prevention of recurrence methods to reduce the frequency and severity of headache attacks, thereby improving the quality of life of patients. Although there is some therapeutic effect, it is prone to drug adverse reactions or dependence, and the target of action is single, resulting in poor dependence and difficulty in eradicating the disease. Traditional Chinese medicine has the characteristics of multi-component, multi-target, and multi pathway effects in treatment, with high safety. It has unique advantages in improving migraine symptoms and reducing the frequency of recurrence.
Qingzhen Tang comes from the “Su Wen Disease Mechanism Qi Yi Bao Ming Ji” and was established for Liu Wansu. It is also known as “Shengma Tang” and is mainly used for treating Lei Tou Feng. The formula uses Shengma Gan Xin with a slight coldness, which has the function of promoting yang, dispelling wind, and relieving pain; Atractylodes macrocephala has a warm and bitter taste, which can dispel wind, dryness, dampness, and invigorate the spleen; Lotus leaves are bitter and calm, clearing heat and dispelling wind, promoting hair and clearing yang. The combination of three medicines works together to promote yang, dispel dampness, and clear and benefit the head. Although the formula consists of only three ingredients, it has excellent compatibility and precise therapeutic effects, and is widely used in clinical practice. Guo et al. used modified Qingzhen decoction to treat migraine patients, with a total effective rate of 96.4%. Jiang also used modified Qingzhen decoction to treat migraine patients, and the results showed that it can significantly improve the clinical symptoms of migraine patients. The effect of Qingzhen Tang in treating migraine is certain, but it is still focused on clinical research, and its specific mechanism of action has not been elucidated.
Network pharmacology is an emerging discipline that integrates systems biology, multidisciplinary pharmacology, computer software, and other fields in the context of the big data era. It uses methods such as network visualization and omics to display the biological network relationships between diseases, drugs, genes, and targets, and is particularly suitable for revealing the mechanisms of multi-component, multi-target, and multi pathway synergistic effects of traditional Chinese medicine and compound formulas. Based on the above theory, this article takes the active ingredients of Qingzhen Tang entering the bloodstream as the research object. Through bioinformatics analysis, the obtained core active ingredients are molecular docked with potential targets to explore their mechanism of action and accuracy in treating migraine. Furthermore, the scientific connotation of their clinical application is explained, providing corresponding theoretical basis for the development of new drugs and experimental research. The flowchart of this research is shown in

Migraine is the most common type of primary headache in clinical practice, which is mainly related to sensory threshold disorders, pain regulation dysfunction, cortical excitability abnormalities, and central sensitization. In recent years, it has shown a trend of high-frequency and chronic development. At present, the pathological mechanism of this disease is not fully understood, and modern medicine generally accepts the trigeminal and genetic theories. Research has shown that central sensitization in the trigeminal pathway is closely related to the inflammatory mediators released by microglia in the trigeminal caudate nucleus (TNC) region, and neurogenic inflammation is considered a fundamental pathological feature of migraine. Traditional Chinese Medicine believes that the occurrence of this disease is related to external factors such as wind, cold, dampness, qi stagnation, phlegm turbidity, and blood stasis blocking the brain meridians, causing pain when they are blocked, or to the lack of nourishment of the brain meridians such as insufficient marrow and sea, deficiency of qi and blood, causing pain when they are not prosperous. It belongs to the categories of “headache” and “brain wind”. This study used network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques to construct a “traditional Chinese medicine compound target pathway” network, in order to preliminarily elucidate the potential mechanism of Qingzhen Tang in treating migraine.
The results of network pharmacology show that 40 components, including quercetin, kaempferol, and stigmasterol, are potential active ingredients for treating migraine. Combining the PPI network and the “traditional Chinese medicine compound target pathway” network, key targets such as IL6, CXCL8, TNF, and PTGS2 were identified. IL6, as an inflammatory factor, plays an important role in numerous inflammatory immune responses. Research has shown that elevated levels of IL6 in the serum of migraine patients may be associated with inflammation. CXCL8 has pro-inflammatory effects in various neurological diseases and can mediate the migration of white blood cells to the site of inflammation. Sarchielli et al. found that CXCL8 levels increased during migraine attacks, and experimental results also confirmed the involvement of this chemokine in leukocyte recruitment during migraine attacks. The importance of TNF in the pathogenesis of migraine has been recognized by many scholars. TNF – α is a potential pain mediator in neurovascular inflammatory diseases, which can lead to a decrease in central nervous system sensitization troughs, an increase in excitability, and induction of COX-2 production, thereby promoting the development of inflammatory hyperalgesia. Franceschin et al. also found that after migraine induction, the mRNA expression of TNF – α increased in animal models. The PTGS2 gene is the core enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of prostaglandins, and studies have shown that prostaglandins are one of the pain inducing factors in migraine.
KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the treatment of migraine with Qingzhen decoction mainly involves TNF signaling pathway, neural signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, NF – κ B signaling pathway, etc. Experiments have shown that the TNF signaling pathway can promote the transcription mechanism of CGRP and act on neuronal receptors, leading to aseptic neurogenic inflammation of meningeal blood vessels and ultimately causing migraine. The NF – κ B signaling pathway is involved in the synthesis and release of various inflammatory factors such as NO. Meanwhile, the neural signaling pathway is a collection of receptor ligands related to intracellular and extracellular signaling pathways on the plasma membrane, closely related to neural function. This pathway involves the synthesis and release of neurotransmitters on synapses and their interaction with receptors, enabling pain signals to be transmitted to the central nervous system. According to literature reports, the HIF-1 signaling pathway plays a central role in tumor progression and angiogenesis in vivo, and may be associated with migraine caused by tumors. Further analysis revealed that the above signaling pathways improve migraine symptoms by participating in a series of processes such as inflammation, tumors, and central nervous system. The molecular docking results indicate that active ingredients such as quercetin, kaempferol, and stigmasterol have good docking activity with target proteins IL6, CXCL8, TNF, and PTGS2, suggesting that the active ingredients of Qingzhen Tang can stably bind to target proteins and exert therapeutic effects on migraine.
This article takes Qingzhen Tang as the research object and preliminarily reveals through network pharmacology methods that Qingzhen Tang can act on migraine through multiple active ingredients and targets, regulate multiple biological pathways, and affect drug response, cell response to lipopolysaccharides, and other biological processes. The TNF signaling pathway, neural signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, etc. may be the main pathways for treating migraine, reflecting that Qingzhen Tang can treat migraine through multiple components, targets, and pathways, which can provide reference for the development of subsequent products.