ABSTRACT
The network pharmacology gradually expands its applications to the drug development and mechanism research. The present work aims to predict the targets and the mechanisms of "warming channel and relieving stagnation" effects of Cinnamomum cassia Presl, especially the effect of promoting blood circulation, by means of reverse pharmacophore mapping, database mining, and some other methods. The results suggest that the main efficient components of C. cassia were procyanidins, diterpenoids, lignans, and so on, and its potential targets include fibrinogen, coagulation factor X, etc. After bioinformatics analysis, the potential influenced biological pathways were disclosed to be VEGF pathway, PDGF pathway, etc. Based on the targeted proteins and pathway forecasting workflow, a cinnamon-centered biological information network was established and the subnetwork relating to cardiovascular activity, especially antithrombotic activity, was extracted. Through this study, we establish a network pharmacology analytical guideline consisting of "potential active components screening-target prediction-metabolic pathway analysis" for traditional Chinese medicine, which provides a new idea and method to clarify the mechanisms of "warming channel and relieving stagnation" effects of C. cassia, and gives the possible directions for the following related activity and mechanism researches. Meanwhile, the method also provide a reference to others in the study of traditional Chinese medicines.