ABSTRACT
Aim To explore the molecular mechanism atherosclerosis by network pharmacology and in vitro of Gualou Xiebai Banxia decoction in the treatment of study.Methods All chemical constituents and targets of Gualou Xiehai Banxia decoction were retrieved from TCMSP database.OMIM, DrugBank and TTD databas¬es were searched with "atherosclerosis" as the search term , and the related targets of atherosclerosis were ob¬tained after eliminating duplicate options.DAVID da¬tabase was used for GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of intersection targets.Finally, the analysis results were confirmed in the ox-LDL induced human aortic endothelial cell injury model.Results A total of 30 active compound molecules in Gualou Xiebai Banxia decoction and 78 potential targets for the treat¬ment of atherosclerosis were retrieved.The therapeutic targets were mainly related to inflammatory pathway, apoptosis and so on.(3-sitosterol was chosen as a po¬tential pharmacodynamic molecule for the treatment of atherosclerosis to verify the correctness of the results of network pharmacological analysis.In vitro experiments showed that, (3-sitosterol could prevent ox-LDL in¬duced apoptosis of human aortic endothelial cells and significantly reduce the level of IL-ip, 1L-6 and TNF- cx in cell culture medium, and protein expression of p- NF-kB/NF-kB, 1L-1 p, 1L-6 and TNF-a in cells.Conclusions The treatment effect of Gualou Xiebai Banxia decoction on atherosclerosis is mainly mediated by regulating inflammation, apoptosis and other path¬ways through multi-component effect, multiple targets and multiple pathways.