Study on the Improvement of Cognitive Impairment Induced by Scopolamine in Mice by Forsythia suspensa Essential Oil

ABSTRACT In this study, the mechanism of Forsythia suspensa essential oil (FSEO) on cognitive disorders was investigated based on network pharmacology and animal experiments. The common targets of AD diseases and the main components of FSEO were collected through GeneCards, PubChem, STRING and other databases, and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network maps were established. GO functional enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed using DAVID and Metascape databases, and the enrichment results were verified using the scopolamine (SCO) cognitive impairment mouse model. The results of network pharmacological analysis showed that FSEO involved 107 potential therapeutic targets, among which MAPK1, MAPK3 and ESR1 were the core targets, which were closely related to the regulatory pathways of MAPK cascade, 5‐hydroxytryptaminergic synapses, dopaminergic synapses and oxidoreductase activity. The results of animal experiments showed that FSEO improved cognitively impaired behaviours, reduced central cholinergic neuron damage and oxidative stress in the mouse brain and increased the content of monoamine transmitters in the mouse brain. Animal experiments further validated the results of the FSEO network pharmacology analysis.