Network pharmacology study reveals energy metabolism and apoptosis pathways-mediated cardioprotective effects of Shenqi Fuzheng

Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Jie LiaoXiaohui Fan

Abstract

Shenqi Fuzheng (SQ) is a renowned traditional Chinese medicine extracted from Radix Codonopsis and Radix Astragali. Although SQ is widely used to treat myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, the molecular mechanisms supporting its clinical application remain elusive. The purpose of current study was to understand its cardioprotective effects at the molecular level using network pharmacology approach. In an I/R injury animal model, the beneficial pharmacological activities of SQ were confirmed by decreased infarct range observed on drug treated rats versus control group. Additionally, several serum biochemical indicators were in concord with this observation. Subsequently, a microarray experiment was performed to reveal the influence on injured heart at the gene expression level by this TCM injection. We then proposed a network analysis algorithm NTRA to discover the key nodes based on both disease network structure and transcriptomics. Using NRIODN, a method developed by our group previously, the holistic changes on the gene network induced by for I/R injury and SQ treatment were evaluated. Pathway enrichment analysis of highly ranked genes by NTRA showed that PPAR and apoptosis pathways were highly related to I/R injury...Continue Reading

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