{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T15:14:08Z","timestamp":1786115648211,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,6]],"date-time":"2026-08-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785974400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004242","name":"Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PNURSP 2026R768"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PNURSP 2026R768"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004242","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100019217","name":"AlMaarefa University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100019217","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pharmacol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background\/objectives<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Liver fibrosis is the consequence of the wound-healing response of the liver to frequent injury. Calycosin is a flavonoid, which has been documented for its hepatoprotective properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective action of calycosin in a model of ethanol-induced liver injury (EILI) in rats. For mechanistic insights, we aimed to measure tumor necrosis factor-\u03b1 (TNF-\u03b1), nuclear factor-\u03baB (NF-\u03baB), and hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1\u03b1) protein levels in liver samples and evaluate the ability of calycosin to bind these pathologic molecules.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Network pharmacology and molecular docking were performed for discovering the interacting target proteins. Forty male rats were assigned into five groups: 1) the vehicle, 2) the calycosin per se group, 3) the EILI control group, and 4) and 5) the EILI + calycosin (5 or 10\u00a0mg\/kg) groups. The liver homogenates were used for ELISA measurement of TNF-\u03b1, NF-\u03baB, and HIF-1\u03b1. Furthermore, liver specimens were used for histopathological and ultrastructural investigations.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The network pharmacology study confirmed the role of TNF-\u03b1\/NF-\u03baB\/HIF-1\u03b1 signaling in EILI, and molecular docking explored the possible interaction between calycosin and these three molecules (docking score = \u22127.6, \u22127, and \u22127.6\u00a0kcal\/mol). The rat study showed that calycosin was able to attenuate histopathological and ultrastructural changes in rat livers, reduce collagen accumulation, and prevent the increases shown in liver enzyme activities (2.17-fold for ALT and 2.26-fold for AST).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Thus, these integrated\n                      <jats:italic>in silico<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic>\n                      studies confirmed the hepatoprotective effect of calycosin against the EILI rat model and provided a mechanistic insight through TNF-\u03b1\/NF-\u03baB\/HIF-1\u03b1 signaling. Further studies are warranted to fully explore the protective mechanism of calycosin in EILI.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2026.1860075","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,6]],"date-time":"2026-08-06T04:24:15Z","timestamp":1785990255000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Calycosin protects from histopathological and ultrastructural changes in ethanol-induced liver injury and exhibits predicted binding affinity to TNF-\u03b1\/NF-\u03baB\/HIF-1\u03b1 proteins"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Abeer A. 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