Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a neuropsychiatric disorder linked to liver dysfunction, commonly occurring in cirrhosis or acute liver failure. Existing treatments like lactulose and rifaximin provide only symptomatic relief and cause gastrointestinal side effects, emphasizing the need for alternative therapies. Tapyadi Loha (TL), a classical Ayurvedic herbomineral formulation, is traditionally used in clinical practice for HE lacks scientific evidence. To perform preliminary evaluation of TL in the management of HE through in silico and in vitro analysis. Activity markers of TL were screened using IMPPAT, SwissADME, and MolSoft based on ≥30 % oral bioavailability and drug-likeness scores of 0–1. Potential HE-related targets were identified through SwissTarget Prediction, SuperPred, BindingDB, and GeneCards, with overlapping targets analyzed via PPI networks using STRING and Cytoscape. Molecular docking in Schrodinger's Maestro revealed good binding affinity phytoconstituents, which were quantified by LC-MS/MS as per CCRAS guidelines. Their hepatoprotective activity was validated in HepG2 cells, while antioxidant effects were confirmed using the DPPH assay. Gene ontology and KEGG analyses revealed enrichment in cancer and hepatitis B pathways, notably NF-κB, TNF, and TLR signalling. Docking studies identified strong binding of gallic acid, quercetin, ascorbic acid, and luteolin, validated by LC-MS/MS. In vitro , TL treatment significantly improved HepG2 cell viability in thioacetamide-induced toxicity in a dose dependent manner, confirming its hepatoprotective potential. Additionally, TL demonstrated antioxidant activity in the DPPH assay. The study examined the potential molecular targets, important genes, and signalling pathways of TL and its connection to HE using a network pharmacology approach. HepG2 cell line research showed that TL increased cell viability in a dose-dependent way. The study supports TL's possible neuroprotective and hepatoprotective benefits.
Chindam et al. (Thu,) studied this question.