Analysis of the Molecular Mechanism of Huangqi Herb Treating COVID- 19 with Myocardial Injury by Pharmacological Tools, Programming Software and Molecular Docking.

BACKGROUND: Huangqi with the capacity to resist virus and preserve myocardium is a potential herb for treating patients with COVID-19 and related myocardial injury. METHODS: We applied network pharmacology method and programming software including R and Perl to explore the probable mechanism of Huangqi fighting against the disease. Ingredients and target gene names of Huangqi were obtained from TCMSP database. Disease-associated genes were mined by searching GeneCards database. Venny online software was applied to draw Venn diagram of intersection genes. Cytoscape software was used to set up the network of disease, drug, compounds and targets. STRING database was applied to set up protein protein interaction (PPI) network. With intersection genes imported into WEBGESALT database, gene ontology (GO) analysis was completed. An R script basing on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database was applied to obtain KEGG pathways. Finally, we used AutoDockTools 1.5.6 software for molecular docking and PyMOL to visualize the docking details. RESULTS: We obtained 20 active components and 18 potential target genes to construct a network, and found out quercetin and kaempferol were core ingredients. Key targets included EGFR, MAPK8, IL6, CASP3, RELA and PPARG. Huangqi showed its potential to reduce inflammatory response to prevent cytokine storm by inhibiting EGFR, IL6 and MAPK and protect myocardium by inhibiting apoptosis and oxidant stress. Huangqi may also work by adjusting ubiquitin and regulating multiple viral pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Huangqi may play a therapeutic role in treating COVID-19 with myocardial injury by the effects of resisting virus and protecting myocardium concurrently.

Coronary Heart Disease and Depression or Anxiety: A Bibliometric Analysis.

This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of published studies on the association between coronary heart disease (CHD) and depression or anxiety. The study also aimed to identify leading authors, institutions, and countries to determine research hotspots and obtain some hints from the speculated future frontiers. Publications about CHD and depression or anxiety between 2004 and 2020 were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database. Bibliographic information, such as authorship, country, citation frequency, and interactive visualization, was generated using VOSviewer1.6.16 and CiteSpace5.6.R5. In total, 8,073 articles were identified in the WOSCC database. The United States (2,953 publications), Duke University and Harvard University (214 publications), Psychosomatic Medicine (297 publications), and Denollet Johan. (99 publications) were the most productive country, institutions, journal, and author, respectively. The three hotspots of the research were "The relationship between depression and CHD," "depression and myocardial infarction," and "The characteristic of women suffering depression after MI." The four future research frontiers are predicted to be "treating depression in CHD patients with multimorbidity," "psychometric properties of instruments for assessing depression and anxiety in CHD patients," "depression or anxiety in post-PCI patients," and "other mental diseases in CHD patients." Bibliometric analysis of the association between CHD and depressive disorders might identify new directions for future research.

Comparative efficacy and safety of wenxin granule combined with antiarrhythmic drugs for atrial fibrillation: A protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The combination of Chinese patent medicine Wenxin Granules (WXG) and antiarrhythmic drugs has been widely used in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), but the results are controversial. This study will conduct a network meta-analysis (NMA) based on data from randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy and safety of WXG combined with ADDs (amiodarone, metoprolol, propafenone, bisoprolol, or other antiarrhythmic drugs) in the treatment of AF, which will perform comparisons or rankings of efficacy among the currently available therapeutic schemes in order to provide evidence to determine the optimal threshold and treatment regimen to AF patients. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A comprehensive systematic literature search will be conducted in Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (SinoMed), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and WanFang database for randomized controlled trials about the WXG with ADDs. The NMA will be conducted following the PRISMA-NMA guidelines. Statistical analyses will be conducted by using Stata software (version 14.0) and RevMan software (version 5.3). RESULTS: The results of this NMA will provide a high-quality evidence for the efficacy of WXG combined with ADDs in the treatment of AF, and a ranking of the therapeutic classes will also be presented. CONCLUSION: The protocol will provide updated evidence for the application of WXG for AF.

1H nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomic study on efficacy of Qingrehuatan decoction against abundant phlegm-heat syndrome in young adults with essential hypertension.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the influence of Qingrehuatan decoction (QRHT) on serum metabolic profile in young essential hypertension (YEH) patients with abundant phlegm-heat syndrome and provide a basis for treatment with the decoction. METHODS: Twelve male YEH patients were randomly selected and serum samples were collected for examination before and after 4 weeks of the treatment with QRHT. Twelve healthy males were randomly selected and their serum samples were collected as a control. All serum samples were detected using metabolomic technology with 1H nuclear magnetic resonance. Differences in metabolites were studied by principal component analysis and partial least squares-discriminate analysis, which produced scores and loadings plots. RESULTS: After 4 weeks of treatment, serum substances could be distinguished between the YEH patients with abundant phlegm-heat syndrome and the control patients. The specific serum endog- enous metabolites tended to improve after the treatment. QRHT can appropriately increase the levels of glucose, lactic acid, citric acid, high-density lipoprotein, phosphatidylcholine, glycerophosphate choline, hydroxybutyrate, alanine, and glutamate. QRHT could also decrease the levels of low-density lipoprotein/very low-density lipoprotein, lipids, N-acetyl glycoprotein, and O-acetyl glycoprotein. CONCLUSION: QRHT can effectively ameliorate metabolic disorders in YEH Patients with abundant phlegm-heat syndrome. 1H NMR-based metabolomic technology can provide an objective basis for the treatment of YEH patients with abundant phlegm-heat syndrome using QRHT.

[Serum proteomic study on hypertension patients with Gan-Dan damp-heat syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To study the serum proteomics in hypertension patients with Gan-Dan damp-heat syndrome (GDDH) for tentatively find special proteins associated with the syndrome. METHODS: Study was performed in 60 hypertensive patients and 39 healthy persons as control. In the patients enrolled, 40 were differentiated as GDDH syndrome and the other 20 as non-GDDH syndrome. Their serum proteins were captured by weak cation nano-magnetic beads, and proteomic fingerprint was made by matrix assistant laser demodulation ionizing time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) through mapping with protein chip reader type PBS II-C. After all the proteomic fingerprints being analyzed by Biomarker Wizard 3.1, the special expressed proteins for GDDH syndrome were identified by Biomarker Patterns Software 5.0 to create the syndrome decision model. RESULTS: Totally, 182 difference protein peaks between patients of GDDH and healthy persons (P<0.05); and 132 difference protein peaks between patients of GDDH and non-GDDH were detected (P<0.05). A decision model consisted 5 screened out protein peaks with mass-to-charge ratio of 2761.555, 6624.362, 2487.192, 2461.610 and 2744.318 was created, which could well differentiate the GDDH syndrome, with the sensitivity of 96.55%, specificity of 90%, false positive rate of 10% and false negative rate of 3.45%. Further blind test for prospective check showed its sensitivity being 81.82%, specificity 89.66%, false positive rate 10.34% and false negative rate 18.18%. CONCLUSION: The differently expressed protein is the material foundation of GDDH syndrome; molecular biological decision model established on the basis of this foundation can offer a tool for making Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation more objectively and accurately.

Serum proteomes of hypertension patients with abundant phlegm-dampness.

OBJECTIVE: To study the serum proteomes of essential hypertension (EH) patients with abundant phlegm-dampness, and try to find special proteins associated with abundant phlegm-dampness syndrome. METHODS: Fifty-nine hypertension patients were included, and the patients were divided into abundant phlegm-dampness syndrome group (39 cases) and non-phlegm-dampness syndrome group (20 cases). To find the special proteins associated with abundant phlegm-dampness, the EH patients with non-phlegm-dampness and another 30 healthy persons were regarded as control. Weak cation nano-magnetic beads were used to capture proteins in serum, and proteomic fingerprint was made by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). All the proteomic fingerprints were analyzed by Biomarker Wizard 3.1 Software. Then Biomarker Patterns Software (BPS) 5.0 was used to identify the differentiated proteins, which could induce phlegm-dampness. RESULTS: There were 102 differentiated protein peaks between abundant phlegm-dampness and the control group. The best markers of abundant phlegm-dampness were protein peaks with the mass to charge ratio (m/z) of 9,334.958 m/z (the expression increased), 9,280.191 m/z (the expression decreased), 8,030.794 m/z (the expression increased), and 2,941.551 m/z (the expression increased). These four protein peaks found by BPS could induce abundant phlegm-dampness. They could be used to separate the abundant phlegm-dampness syndrome from the healthy persons and the hypertension patients with non-phlegm-dampness. The sensitivity of the model was 93.103% (27/29), specificity was 92% (23/25), false positive rate was 8% (2/25), false negative rate was 6.897% (2/29) and Youden's index was 85.103%. Blind test data indicated a sensitivity of 90% (9/10) and a specificity of 88% (22/25), and the false positive rate was 12% (3/25), false negative rate was 10% (1/10), and Youden's index was 78%. CONCLUSION: The differentiated proteins between the abundant phlegm-dampness group and the control group are the material foundation of abundant phlegm-dampness. The selected differentiated proteins can be used to distinguish the EH patients with abundant phlegm-dampness from the healthy persons and the EH patients with non-phlegm-dampness. The molecular biology diagnosis model can offer an objective and accurate way for TCM syndrome differentiation.

[Research progress of traditional Chinese medicine for stem cell therapy of ischemic heart disease].

Regeneration myocardium by stem cell transplantartion has become a focus in research areas of cardial vascular disease. This review deals the role of traditional Chinese medicine in stem cell threapy of ischemic heart disease, such as mobilizing bone marrow stem cells, promoting stem cell proliferation, survival, induced them to differentiate into cardiomyocytes, and so on, showing good application prospects.