Network pharmacology exploration reveals endothelial inflammation as a common mechanism for stroke and coronary artery disease treatment of Danhong injection.

Abstract

Although Danhong injection (DHI) is the most widely prescribed Chinese medicine for both stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD), its underlying common molecular mechanisms remain unclear. An integrated network pharmacology and experimental verification approach was used to decipher common pharmacological mechanisms of DHI on stroke and CAD treatment. A compound-target-disease & function-pathway network was constructed and analyzed, indicating that 37 ingredients derived from DH (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge., Flos Carthami tinctorii and DHI) modulated 68 common targets shared by stroke and CAD. In-depth network analysis results of the top diseases, functions, pathways and upstream regulators implied that a common underlying mechanism linking DHI's role in stroke and CAD treatment was inflammatory response in the process of atherosclerosis. Experimentally, DHI exerted comprehensive anti-inflammatory effects on LPS, ox-LDL or cholesterol crystal-induced NF-κB, c-jun and p38 activation, as well as IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-10 secretion in vascular endothelial cells. Ten of 14 predicted ingredients were verified to have significant anti-inflammatory activities on LPS-induced endothelial inflammation. DHI exerts pharmacological efficacies on both stroke and CAD through multi-ingredient, multi-target, multi-function and multi-pathway mode. Anti-endothelial inflammation therapy serves as a common underlying mechanism. This study provides a new understanding of DHI in clinical application on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

• Authors: Ming Lyu, Chun-Lin Yan, Hai-Xin Liu, Tai-Yi Wang, Xin-Hui Shi, Jin-Ping Liu, John Orgah, Guan-Wei Fan, Ji-Hong Han, Xiao-Ying Wang, Yan Zhu
• Journal: Scientific reports (Sci Rep) Vol. 7 Issue 1 Pg. 15427 (11 13 2017) ISSN: 2045-2322 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 29133791 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Drugs, Chinese Herbal
• danhong

Topics

• Cell Line
• Cell Survival (drug effects)
• Computational Biology
• Coronary Artery Disease (drug therapy, pathology)
• Datasets as Topic
• Drugs, Chinese Herbal (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Endothelial Cells (drug effects, pathology)
• Endothelium, Vascular (cytology, drug effects, pathology)
• Humans
• Inflammation (drug therapy, pathology)
• Injections
• Stroke (drug therapy, pathology)