Integration of Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking to Analyse the Mechanism of Action of Oregano Essential Oil in the Treatment of Bovine Mastitis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors developed a relevant study for the dairy cattle production chain. It is essential to use bioinformatics techniques in order to prospect new molecules with therapeutic potential. It is important to reduce the time inside the laboratory, accelerating the production of new mastitis treatment options.

I suggest a minor revision!

Introduction Lines 44 – 57 the authors mentioned relevant aspects of mastitis. I suggest, before the next paragraph, to mention the relevance of alternative therapies, indicating the main advantages.

Methodology: Why the authors did not include a conventional antimicrobial drug in the molecular docking analysis. This is important, as a parameter for analysis.

Discussion: Line 205: paracetamol or p-cymene

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

Your manuscript titled "Integration of Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking to Analyse the Mechanism of Action of Oregano Oil in the Treatment of Bovine Mastitis" is addressing an interesting research topic for publication at Veterinary Sciences.

 The main question addressed by the research was to use network pharmacology to determine the mechanism of action, as well as examine oregano oil and its components at a molecular level, to evaluate the prospect of the development of oregano oil as a therapeutic for bovine mastitis according to authors' aim.  

 

It is a relevant question for Veterinary Sciences due it is addressed to reduce the use of antibiotics in dairy cattle by using a new methodology to solve an important problem such as mastitis in dairies by focusing on: 1) mastitis as one of the major diseases of bovines that affects the quality and output of milk and it causes serious economic losses in the dairy sector, and 2) network pharmacology as an innovative methodology which explores the relationships and mechanisms between chemical components and biological networks on a molecular level by combining bioinformatics and network analysis to reveal the correlations among drugs, genes, and diseases to evaluate the prospect of the development in current research of oregano oil as a therapeutic strategy for mastitis due to its pharmacological effects, such as antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anti-tumor, antiparasitic, and immunomodulatory. The research conducted seems interesting due to its originality/novelity to address an important problem for dairies such as bovine mastitis. It provides new knowledge by applying network pharmacology as an original approach for exploring the underlying relationships and mechanisms between chemical components and biochemical networks to evaluate the use of essential oils (for example, oregano oil) as a therapeutic strategy for bovine mastitis.   To my knowledge, no previous articles have been published to date in this topic by using network pharmacology with oregano oil for bovine mastitis. The present study predicted the key targets and main signaling pathways involved in the treatment of mastitis in dairy bovines by oregano oil using network pharmacology and molecular docking technology. It indicates that the treatment of bovine mastitis with oregano oil may be mainly achieved through such the key action targets as TNF, TLR4, ALB, IL-1β, TLR2, IL-6, IFNG 16 and MyD88, and the main signaling pathways to that were PI3K-Akt, MAPK, IL-17, NF-κB. In summary, the study provides a theoretical basis for the treatment of bovine mastitis with oregano oil which might be useful for future research to be conducted on this topic. The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and argumented presented in the text, Tables and Figures. They address in them the main question posed.

It might be acceptable for publication after minor revision. Please, see below a list of comments and suggestions to be applied by you to improve its quality before accepting it for publication. 

L11 Replace 'oregano, has' by 'oregano, which has'.

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Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscripts studies the way the main active compounds present in the oregano essential oil may fight against mastitis infections in bovins.

In the introduction some references are missing.

You should include the botanical name of Oregano, and always refer to the essential oil, instead of just oil, because it's not exactly the same and could induce confussion.

The Material and methods section is well described, only you shoudl add the explanation of all the acronyms used.

The results are globally well explained, even somre figures have not been completely treated or well explained: 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The conclusion is good

More detailed corrections can be found in the attached document

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf