[Explore mechanism of Compound Uncaria Hypotensive Tablet for hypertension based on network pharmacology].

This paper aimed to predict the active ingredients and action targets of Compound Uncaria Hypotensive Tablet for hypertension based on network pharmacology, and discuss its possible "multi-components, multi-targets, and multi-pathways" mechanism for treatment of hypertension. The integrative pharmacological platform of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM-IP) was used to construct the component target-disease target network of Compound Uncaria Hypotensive Tablet, and the internet analysis method was used to screen the key nodes, on which the pathway enrichment analysis was carried out to explore its possible biological process in the treatment of hypertension. Target network analysis showed that, 35 predicted active ingredients of Compound Uncaria Hypotensive Tablet had a strong interaction with the prostaglandin endogenous peroxidase synthase (PTGS1, PTGS2), ATP synthetase (ATP1A1, ATP5A1, ATP5C1, ATP5B) and other 29 major proteins. Network enriched analysis showed that Compound Uncaria Hypotensive Tablet participated in the regulation of hypertension in different processes of pathology, through 15 pathways such as regulating blood pressure, G protein coupled receptor activation, adrenergic myocardial cell signal transduction and platelet activation. This study revealed the potential active compounds and possible mechanism of Compound Uncaria Hypotensive Tablet for treatment of hypertension, providing theoretical references for further systematic laboratory experiments on effective compounds and action mechanism of Compound Uncaria Hypotensive Tablet.

Main active constituent identification in Guanxinjing capsule, a traditional Chinese medicine, for the treatment of coronary heart disease complicated with depression.

Guanxinjing capsules (GXJCs) are used in traditional Chinese medicine as a common therapy for coronary heart disease (CHD) complicated with depression. In this study, we aimed to identify the main active constituents in GXJCs and to investigate the mechanisms of GXJC action on CHD complicated with depression. The chemical constituent profile of the GXJC was identified by UHPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap assay, and oral bioavailability was evaluated to screen the GXJC drug-like chemical constituents. A total of 16 GXJC drug-like chemical constituents were identified. Then, putative targets of the GXJC drug-like chemical constituents were predicted using MedChem Studio, with 870 genes found to be the putative targets of these molecules. After that, a GXJC putative target-known CHD/depression therapeutic target network was constructed, and four topological features, including degree, betweenness, closeness and K-coreness, were calculated. According to the topological feature values of the GXJC putative targets, 14 main active constituents were identified because their corresponding putative targets had topological importance in the GXJC putative target-known CHD/depression therapeutic target network, which were defined as the candidate targets of GXJC against CHD complicated with depression. Functionally, these candidate targets were significantly involved in several CHD/depression-related pathways, including repairing pathological vascular changes, reducing platelet aggregation and inflammation, and affecting patient depression. This study identified a list of main active constituents of GXJC acting on CHD complicated with depression using an integrative pharmacology-based approach that combined active chemical constituent identification, drug target prediction and network analysis. This method may offer an efficient way to understand the pharmacological mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.

Network pharmacology-based identification of key pharmacological pathways of Yin-Huang-Qing-Fei capsule acting on chronic bronchitis.

For decades in China, the Yin-Huang-Qing-Fei capsule (YHQFC) has been widely used in the treatment of chronic bronchitis, with good curative effects. Owing to the complexity of traditional Chinese herbal formulas, the pharmacological mechanism of YHQFC remains unclear. To address this problem, a network pharmacology-based strategy was proposed in this study. At first, the putative target profile of YHQFC was predicted using MedChem Studio, based on structural and functional similarities of all available YHQFC components to the known drugs obtained from the DrugBank database. Then, an interaction network was constructed using links between putative YHQFC targets and known therapeutic targets of chronic bronchitis. Following the calculation of four topological features (degree, betweenness, closeness, and coreness) of each node in the network, 475 major putative targets of YHQFC and their topological importance were identified. In addition, a pathway enrichment analysis based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway database indicated that the major putative targets of YHQFC are significantly associated with various pathways involved in anti-inflammation processes, immune responses, and pathological changes caused by asthma. More interestingly, eight major putative targets of YHQFC (interleukin [IL]-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, FCER1G, CCL11, and EPX) were demonstrated to be associated with the inflammatory process that occurs during the progression of asthma. Finally, a molecular docking simulation was performed and the results exhibited that 17 pairs of chemical components and candidate YHQFC targets involved in asthma pathway had strong binding efficiencies. In conclusion, this network pharmacology-based investigation revealed that YHQFC may attenuate the inflammatory reaction of chronic bronchitis by regulating its candidate targets, which may be implicated in the major pathological processes of the asthma pathway.