Chihyun Park

Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a leading cause of preventable vision loss among working-age adults, arises from chronic hyperglycemic injury to the retinal microvasculature; current interventions such as anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injection are largely reactive, and mechanism-anchored herbal options remain undefined. We constructed a multiscale interactome and applied a biased random-walk diffusion model to prioritize herbal candidates, candidate compounds, and mechanisms for DR. Herb–ingredient records were drawn from OASIS; ingredient targets from DrugBank, TTD, and STITCH; and disease genes from DisGeNET. For each herb and compound, we computed diffusion profiles, correlated them with the DR profile, and assessed target-overlap significance by hypergeometric test. Eleven herbs combining high correlation (top 5%) with significant overlap (p < 0.05) were retained, led by Pini Koraiensis Semen (0.0263), Benincasae Exocarpium (0.0183), and Veratri Rhizoma Et Radix (0.0162); none had been previously investigated for DR. CASP3 emerged as a target shared by all eleven herbs, and enrichment analysis highlighted the advanced glycation end product–receptor for AGE (AGE–RAGE), TNF, IL-17, and NF-κB pathways alongside apoptosis and reactive-oxygen-species responses. Compound-level analysis recovered evidence-supported quercetin, resveratrol, oleic acid, luteolin, and diosgenin and nominated tectorigenin and cucurbitacins as novel candidates. This framework recapitulates known DR biology and elevates testable multi-target leads that warrant experimental validation for diabetic retinopathy.

Chronic alcohol consumption induces oxidative stress not only in the liver but also in the gastrointestinal tract, where prolonged intestinal ethanol absorption plays a pivotal and underrecognized role. This review reframes ethanol pharmacokinetics to emphasize sustained jejunal and ileal uptake, which maintains elevated blood alcohol levels and perpetuates redox imbalance across the gut–liver axis. We integrate recent findings on ethanol-induced barrier dysfunction, CYP2E1-mediated ROS production, microbial dysbiosis, and mitochondrial disruption, proposing that the intestine is an active site of injury and a driver of systemic inflammation. Key mechanistic insights reveal that gut-derived endotoxins, compromised epithelial integrity, and microbiome–mitochondria interactions converge to exacerbate hepatic and extrahepatic damage. We further explore emerging therapeutic strategies—ranging from NAD⁺ repletion and probiotics to fecal microbiota transplantation—that target this upstream pathology. Recognizing prolonged intestinal ethanol absorption as a clinically meaningful phase offers new directions for early intervention and redox-based treatment in alcohol-associated disease.