Network pharmacology exploring the mechanistic role of indirubin phytoconstituent from Indigo naturalis targeting GSK-3β in Alzheimer’s disease

One of the most common causes of dementia in older adults is Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Numerous mechanisms, including acetylcholine breakdown, amyloid beta buildup, neurofibrillary tangle accumulation, and inflammation, are involved in the pathogenesis of AD. Different targets have been demonstrated in studies to alleviate the cognitive impairment in AD. In AD, amyloid β impairs phosphatidylinositol-3 (PI3)/Akt signaling, activating GSK-3β. This sequence leads to an increase in the phosphorylation of tau, the creation of neurofibrillary tangles, neuronal death, loss of synapses, and memory impairments, all of which are typical symptoms seen in the brains of individuals with AD. Using network pharmacology, molecular docking, and MD simulations, we have determined that indirubin can selectively interact with glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3β). Traditional Chinese Medicine, including Indigo naturalis, is known to have the ability to control chronic diseases having indirubin as the main phytoconstituent. The binding energy of indirubin was −10.9 kcal/mol, which was better than that of the reference ligand with −9.4 kcal/mol. According to MD simulations, the indirubin-GSK-3β complex remained stable during the simulation, exhibiting an RMSD of 1.90 in comparison to the 2.01 and 2.34 for reference-GSK-3β complex and free protein, respectively. According to our study, indirubin phytoconstituent from Indigo naturalis, targets GSK-3β in AD, additional investigation in the quest for inhibitors of this crucial biological target required further in-vitro/in-vivo experimental validations.