ARTICLE
23 October 2026

The Network Pharmacology Mechanism of Embryonic Stem Cell Brain Mitochondrial Peptides (ESC-BrMiP) in Intervening Parkinson’s Disease Risk

Shuangcheng Guan1 ,  Pengcheng Ding2 ,  Xuetong Li2 ,  Jiren Zhang1*
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1 Zhongxu Medical Life Science Research Institute, Hengqin, Zhuhai 519000, Guangdong, China
2 Heying Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 510000, Guandong, China
JCNR 2026 , 10(9), 283–294; https://doi.org/10.26689/JCNR.v10i9.15829
© 2026 by the Author(s). Licensee: Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder common in middle-aged and older adults, characterised by apoptosis of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, abnormal aggregation of α-synuclein, mitochondrial dysfunction, and chronic neuroinflammation, with a lack of clinical treatments targeting the underlying causes. Mitochondrial peptides from bovine embryonic brain cells contain 538 bioactive signalling molecules widely involved in neural development, mitochondrial energy metabolism, oxidative stress balance, inflammation regulation, and protein homeostasis degradation. This study used a network pharmacology approach, taking the 538 mitochondrial peptide molecules as the research material, to screen PD disease targets and identify overlapping peptide-disease targets; a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and hub genes selected; GO function and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were conducted; a peptide-target-pathway regulatory network was built; and molecular docking validated interactions between core peptides and hub targets, systematically illustrating the multi-target, multi-pathway molecular regulation mechanism by which bovine embryonic brain cell mitochondrial peptides may affect PD risk. The results showed a significant overlap of targets between mitochondrial peptides and PD, with PPI network analysis highlighting IL-7, IL-15, PDGFRA and other core hub genes; GO enrichment was mainly related to neuronal apoptosis regulation, oxidative stress response, mitochondrial structure assembly, and synaptic plasticity regulation; KEGG pathway enrichment focused on the Parkinson's disease pathway, oxidative phosphorylation, PI3K-AKT, MAPK, neuroinflammation, and autophagy-apoptosis pathways; molecular docking confirmed stable binding activity between core peptides and key PD targets. The study suggests that mitochondrial peptides from bovine embryonic brain cells may intervene in PD pathology by inhibiting neuroinflammation, repairing mitochondrial function, counteracting oxidative stress, regulating abnormal protein aggregation, protecting dopaminergic neurons, and balancing apoptosis and autophagy, providing a theoretical and molecular basis for nutritional intervention, mechanism research, and functional peptide development in PD. 

Keywords
Bovine embryonic brain cells
ESC-BrMiP
Bioactive molecule library
Parkinson’s disease
Network pharmacology
Molecular docking
References

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Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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