Application of Network Pharmacology in the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases with Traditional Chinese Medicine

In recent years, the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, has shown a steadily rising trend, which has posed a major challenge to the global public health. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), with its multi-component and multi-target characteristics, offers a promising approach for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is difficult to comprehensively elucidate the complex mechanisms underlying TCM formulations. As an emerging systems biology approach, network pharmacology has provided a crucial tool for uncovering the multi-target mechanisms of TCM through high-throughput technologies, molecular docking, and network analysis. This paper reviews the advancements in the application of network pharmacology in treating neurodegenerative diseases with TCM, analyzes the current status of relevant databases and technological methods, discusses the limitations in the research, and proposes future directions to promote the modernization of TCM and the development of precision medicine. Keywords: Neurodegenerative diseases, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Network pharmacology, Therapeutic targets