Mechanism of Wuling Powder in treatment of chronic heart failure based on network pharmacology / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the mechanism of Wuling Powder in the treatment of chronic heart failure (CHF) based on network pharmacology. Methods: Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database (TCMSP) and literature mining were used to search the chemical components and targets of Wuling Powder, and a single drug-active ingredients-target network was established. The related targets of chronic heart failure were collected through Genecards and OMIM databases, the network model of active components-CHF-targets was constructed and analyzed by Cytoscape 3.7.1 software. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by STRING database platform, and the gene oesthetics (GO) function annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedin of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) signal pathway enrichment analysis were performed by DAVID online tools. The molecular docking was performed using Surflex software. Results: Fifty components, 29 potential targets, 8 243 targets related to chronic heart failure, and 27 targets of Wuling Powder-CHF were obtained. The network analysis results showed that the key targets of Wuling Powder in the treatment of chronic heart failure included CASP3, RELA, AR, ESR1, CHRM1 and CASP8, etc. Biological processes mainly involved signal transduction, nervous system development, transcription initiation from RNA polymerase II promoter in response to estradiol, synaptic transmission, cholinergic synaptic transmission, etc. KEGG enrichment involved neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, cholinergic synapse, etc. The molecular docking results showed that (+)-catechin, taxifolin and other key compounds in Wuling Powder had better binding ability with key targets such as CASP8, CHRM1, and NR3C1. Conclusion: The material basis and mechanism of Wuling Powder in the treatment of chronic heart failure were revealed based on network pharmacology, which provided a certain theoretical basis for the clinical application of Wuling Powder.