Systems Pharmacology-Based Strategy to Investigate Pharmacological Mechanisms of Radix Puerariae for Treatment of Hypertension

Abstract

Hypertension is a clinical cardiovascular syndrome characterized by elevated systemic arterial pressure with or without multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Radix Pueraria (RP) has the effects of anti-myocardial ischemia, anti-arrhythmia, vasodilatation, blood pressure reduction, anti-inflammation, and attenuating insulin resistance. Although RP can be effective for the treatment of hypertension, its active compounds, drug targets, and exact molecular mechanism are still unclear. In this study, systems pharmacology was used to analyze the active compounds, drug target genes, and key pathways of RP in the treatment of hypertension. Thirteen active compounds and related information on RP were obtained from the TCMSP database, and 140 overlapping genes related to hypertension and drugs were obtained from the GeneCards and OMIM databases. A PPI network and a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) comprehensive network (Drug-Compounds-Genes-Disease network) were constructed, and 2,246 GO terms and 157 pathways were obtained by GO enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Some important active compounds and targets were evaluated by in vitro experiments. This study shows that RP probably acts by influencing the proliferation module, apoptosis module, inflammation module, and others when treating hypertension. This study provides novel insights for researchers to systematically explore the mechanism of action of TCM.

Angelica Dahurica Regulated the Polarization of Macrophages and Accelerated Wound Healing in Diabetes: A Network Pharmacology Study and In Vivo Experimental Validation

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“…Oral bioavailability (OB) is a fractional dosage that reaches the circulatory system and is significant in the discovery of most oral TCM. Drug-likeness (DL) refers to a qualitative examination technique for drug design and is widely utilized to assess the suitability of a compound to be used as medication ( Wu et al, 2020 ). Since a majority of the compounds in TCM lack sufficient pharmacological features, the compounds cannot bind explicit cell protein markers effectively.…”

Kudzu isoflavone C‐glycosides: Analysis, biological activities, and metabolism

“…Puerarin also improves insulin resistance and shows cardiovascular beneficial effects in Dahl salt‐sensitive hypertensive animals (Tan et al., 2017). Thus, kudzu isoflavones or puerarin may offer beneficial effects in endothelial dysfunction related cardiovascular diseases through multiple mechanisms and targets involved (Wu et al., 2020).…”

Identification of the active compounds and pharmacological mechanisms of Xiaoqinglong decoction for asthma based on network pharmacology and molecular docking technology

“…Data on the 8 herbs in XQLD were mainly obtained from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP, https://tcmspw.com/tcmsp.php),which is one of the largest Chinese medicine pharmacological data platforms including all Chinese herbal medicines, chemical components and pharmacokinetic properties information in the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China [11]. This study used oral bioavailability (OB) > 30% and drug-likeness (DL) ≥ 0.18 as the screening criteria [12][13][14], the main active ingredients of XQLD were screened in TCMSP, and the compounds that did not meet the screening conditions but were high in content or had strong activity were selected and added manually by consulting the literature.…”