[Mechanism of Qilongtian Capsules in treatment of acute lung injury based on network pharmacology prediction and experimental validation].

This study aimed to explore the mechanism of Qilongtian Capsules in treating acute lung injury(ALI) based on network pharmacology prediction and in vitro experimental validation. Firstly, UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS was used to analyze the main chemical components of Qilongtian Capsules, and related databases were used to obtain its action targets and ALI disease targets. STRING database was used to build a protein-protein interaction(PPI) network. Metascape database was used to conduct enrichment analysis of Gene Ontology(GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG). AutoDock software was used to perform molecular docking verification on the main active components and key targets. Then, the RAW264.7 cells were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide(LPS) for in vitro experiments. Cell viability was measured by MTT and ROS level was measured by DCFH-DA. NO content was measured by Griess assay, and IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α mRNA expression was detected by RT-PCR. The predicted targets were preliminarily verified by investigating the effect of Qilongtian Capsules on downstream cytokines. Eighty-four compounds were identified by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS. Through database retrieval, 44 active components with 589 target genes were screened out. There were 560 ALI disease targets, and 65 intersection targets. PPI network topology analysis revealed 10 core targets related to ALI, including STAT3, JUN, VEGFA, CASP3, and MMP9. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that Qilongtian Capsules mainly exerted an anti-ALI effect by regulating cancer pathway, AGE-RAGE, MAPK, and JAK-STAT signaling pathways. The results of molecular docking showed that the main active components in Qilongtian Capsules, including crenulatin, ginsenoside F_1, ginsenoside Rb_1, ginsenoside Rd, ginsenoside Rg_1, ginsenoside Rg_3, notoginsenoside Fe, notoginsenoside G, notoginsenoside R_1, notoginsenoside R_2, and notoginsenoside R_3, had good binding affinities with the corresponding protein targets STAT3, JUN, VEGFA, CASP3, and MMP9. Cellular experiments showed that Qilongtian Capsules at 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 mg·mL~(-1) reduced the release of NO, while Qilongtian Capsules at 0.25 and 0.5 mg·mL~(-1) reduced ROS production, down-regulated mRNA expression of IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α, and inhibited the inflammatory cascade. In summary, Qilongtian Capsules may exert therapeutic effects on ALI through multiple components and targets.

The effect of nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) in kidney I/R mediated by C5a/C5aR.

To investigate the relationship between NFAT and C5a/C5aR in C5a/C5aR-mediated kidney Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury, the rats' NRK-52E cell line was used in this study and was distributed into 4 groups, I: the normal control (NC), II: the ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury cell model (MG), III: the ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury cell model treated with C5a (50 nmol/l) (MG + C5a), IV: the ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury cell model treated with C5aR antagonist (2.5 µmol/l) (MG + anti-C5aR). Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), western blot, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry were performed. Nuclear Factor Activated T Cell (NFAT), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin (IL-6) were detected in this study. The results of immunofluorescence showed that NFAT had a nuclear translocation phenomenon during the study. The RT-PCR and WB data indicated that the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 in group III were higher than any other groups. Apoptosis in group III was much serious than other groups. All the results in this study showed that NFAT plays an important role in ischemia/reperfusion injury, it can be induced to up-regulate the inflammatory factor TNF-α and IL-6 by the complement system member C5a/C5aR.