Investigating the Biomarkers of the Sasang Constitution via Network Pharmacology Approach

Abstract

Sasang constitutional (SC) medicine classifies people into Soeum (SE), Soyang (SY), Taeeum (TE), and Taeyang (TY) types based on psychological and physical traits. However, biomarkers of these types are still unclear. We aimed to identify biomarkers among the SC types using network pharmacology methods. Target genes associated with the SC types were identified by grouping herb targets that preserve and strengthen the requisite energy (Bomyeongjiju). The herb targets were obtained by constructing an herb-compound-target network. We identified 371, 185, 146, and 89 target genes and their unique biological processes related to SE, SY, TE, and TY types, respectively. While the targets of SE and SY types were the most similar among the target pairs of the SC types, those of TY type overlapped with only a few other SC-type targets. Moreover, SE, SY, TE, and TY were related to “diseases of the digestive system,” “diseases of the nervous system,” “endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases,” and “congenital malformations, deformations, and chromosomal abnormalities,” respectively. We successfully identified the target genes, biological processes, and diseases related to each SC type. We also demonstrated that a drug-centric approach using network pharmacology analysis provides a deeper understanding of the concept of Sasang constitutional medicine at a phenotypic level.