Exploration of the active components and pharmacological mechanism of Compound Longmaining for the treatment of myocardial infarction.

Background: Myocardial Infarction (MI) is a cardiovascular disease with a high morbidity and mortality rate. While MI is currently treated with pharmaceuticals, there is a need for new treatment options: compound Chinese medicines may have unique advantages for the treatment of MI. Methods: A combination of network pharmacology and experimental verification is used to identify the ingredients and mechanism of Compound Longmaining (CLMN) for treating MI. Network pharmacology combined with the gene expression omnibus (GEO) chip method is used to analyze the primary pathway of CLMN for treating MI, and then molecular docking is used to verify the affinity of key target proteins in the primary pathway that bind to active molecules. The major active compounds of CLMN are screened using the docking score results. The CIBERSORT algorithm is used to evaluate immune cell infiltration in MI, and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is used to control the quality of the components. Finally, a mouse model is established to verify the molecular mechanism of CLMN for treating MI using hematoxlyn eosin (HE) staining and immunohistochemistry. Results: By utilizing network pharmacology combined with molecular docking, the mechanism of action of CLMN for the treatment of MI was found to possibly be related to the ingredients of puerarin, daidzein, ferulic acid, chrysin, and galangin. These molecules regulate the NF-Kappa B signaling pathway and the expression of RELA, IKBKB, NKBIA, and other targets. The CIBERSORT algorithm and ggplot2 package analysis were used to distinguish the immune cells, such as neutrophils, macrophages, and T cells, that play a key role in the development of MI. HPLC controlled the quality of the screened medicinal ingredients. An immunohistochemical analysis showed that the TNF-α and TRAF-2 expression levels in MI of the CLMN-treated mice were decreased, while IkBα was increased. HE staining showed CLMN reduced inflammation in mouse cardiomyocytes and decreased fibrosis. Conclusions: This study showed that CLMN treatment of MI is a process that involves multi-components, multi-targets and multi-pathways, and the established multi-index component content measurement of the CLMN decoction can be used for quality control of CLMN.

Study of the mechanism underlying therapeutic effect of Compound Longmaining on myocardial infarction using a network pharmacology-based approach.

Compound Longmaining (CLMN) decoction, a herbal formula from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), has been widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, especially myocardial infarction (MI) in recent years. With limited knowledge of mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effect of CLMN on MI, this study was to use Network Pharmacology-based approach together with mice MI model to gain more insight of such mechanisms. The outcomes showed that 37 active compounds were identified constituting CLMN and targeting 444 genes, which were cross-referenced with MI associated genes, leading to identification of 24 target genes of CLMN for MI. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of the 24 target genes was performed with 53 entries, amongst which include extracellular matrix decomposition, protein hydrolysis, cellular protein metabolism, protein hydrolysis, receptor binding, and NAD binding. There were 14 pathways generated using KEGG enrichment (p < 0.05). The constructed medicinal material-chemical component-target-pathway network identified seven core target with relatively higher values of degree and betweenness. in vivo experiments, where the effects of CLMN was examined on mice model of MI, confirmed that CLMN could protect myocardium by regulating these targets. The therapeutic effect of CLMN on MI is due to its effect in delaying ventricular remodeling, reducing myocardial fibrosis and apoptosis after MI, which can protect myocardial tissue.

RNA-seq based transcriptome analysis of the protective effect of compound longmaining decoction on acute myocardial infarction.

In this study, RNA-seq technology was used to study the protective effect of Compound Longmaining (CLMN) decoction on acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The results of RNA-seq showed that the CLMN decoction has a regulatory effect on the 51 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were mainly enriched in the 7 pathways revealed by KEGG analysis. In addition, qPCR technology was used to verify the expression of chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 6 (Ccl6), chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 5 (Ccr5), integrin alpha M (Itgam), neutrophil cytosolic factor 1 (Ncf1), and matrix metallopeptidase 9 (Mmp9). Experiment data showed that the qPCR results were consistent with the RNA-seq results. This study demonstrated that CLMN decoction might regulate the expressions of Ccl6, Ccr5, Itgam, Ncf1 and Mmp9, inhibit the chemokine signaling pathway and leukocyte transendothelial migration to play a protective effect on AMI.

[Effect of compound Longmaining decoction with different combinations on intestinal absorption of puerarin].

To study the effects of compound Longmaining(FFLMN) with different combinations on the intestinal absorption of puerarin. The rat single pass intestinal perfusion model was adopted, and the concentration of puerarin in intestinal samples was determined by HPLC. The effects of different combination groups on the absorption of puerarin in duodenum, jejunum, ileum and colon were investigated. The combined drugs were GG(Puerariae Lobatae Radix), GG-CSL (Puerariae Lobatae Radix compared with Dioscoreae Nipponicae Rhizoma), GG-CX(Puerariae Lobatae Radix compared with Chuanxiong Rhizoma) and FFLMN (compound Longmaining). We found that the absorption rate constant(Ka) and the apparent coefficient(Papp) of puerarin had no significant difference between GG-CSL and FFLMN groups, but significantly higher in GG and GG-CX groups(P<0.05) in the duodenum and ileum. In jejunum and colon, Ka and Papp of puerarin showed significant differences between GG and other groups(P<0.05). At the same time, FFLMN also had significant differences with GG-CSL and GG-CX groups(P<0.05). The results showed that in the whole intestine of rats, FFLMN could significantly promote the absorption of puerarin. In the duodenum and ileum, Dioscoreae Nipponicae Rhizoma played a significant role in promoting absorption of puerarin. In jejunum and colon, Dioscoreae Nipponicae Rhizoma and Chuanxiong Rhizoma have a synergistic effect in promoting absorption of puerarin.