Deciphering risperidone-induced lipogenesis by network pharmacology and molecular validation

Risperidone is an atypical antipsychotic that can cause substantial weight gain. The pharmacological targets and molecular mechanisms related to risperidone-induced lipogenesis (RIL) remain to be elucidated. Therefore, network pharmacology and further experimental validation were undertaken to explore the action mechanisms of RIL. In this study, RIL was systematically analyzed using integrating multiple databases through integrated network pharmacology, transcriptomics, molecular docking, and molecular experiment analysis. The potential signaling pathways for RIL were identified and experimentally validated using Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis. Our experimental data showed that Risperidone promotes adipocyte differentiate and lipid accumulation. And network pharmacology and GO analyses showed that risperidone induced adipocyte metabolism, differentiation, and lipid accumulation related functions. Intersecting analysis, molecular docking, and pathway validation analysis indicated that risperidone activated adipocytokine signaling pathway related genes by targeting MAPK14 (Mitogen-activated protein kinase 14), MAPK8 (Mitogen-activated protein kinase 8), and RXRA (Retinoic acid receptor RXR-alpha), thereby inhibiting long-chain fatty acid beta-oxidation by suppressing STAT3 (Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) expression and phosphorylation. This study suggested that Risperidone increases adipocyte lipid accumulation by plausible inhibiting long-chain fatty acid beta-oxidation through targeting MAPK14, MAPK8, and RXRA. Overall design: The whole-genome transcriptome of the promote-lipogenesis effects of risperidone in 3T3-L1