Modular characteristics and mechanism of action of herbs for vascular calcification treatment in Chinese medicine: a data mining and network pharmacology-based identification

C. Yang, X. Peng, H.-Y. Liu, X.-Q. Li, G.-C. Rao, Z.-Y. Xie, Q.-F. Yang, L. Du, C.-G. Xie

Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University and Collaborative Innovation Center of Biotherapy, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. yc199207@126.com

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• Cardiology
• Phytomedicine

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the modular characteristics and mechanism of action of Chinese herbs for vascular calcification (VC) treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Network pharmacology coupled with literature data mining was utilized to assess the Chinese herbal clinical performance as well as its similarity, characteristics, ingredient, target, and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment, and network construction.

RESULTS: The top 15 medications from the literature, according to the usage, and 190 active chemicals, 183 common targets between medication and VC-related targets were weeded out. Analysis of the relationships between the active ingredients, pharmacological targets, and signaling pathways helped to clearly define the therapeutic effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Importantly, we discovered seven most hub proteins (AKT1, CTNNB1, TNF, EGFR, TP53, JUN and IL-6) and two of the herbs’ most fundamental ingredients (Formononetin and Luteolin) in TCM-mediated VC suppression. Mechanistically, the metabolic pathways [AGE-RAGE pathway, interleukin-17 (IL-17) pathway, and p53 pathway] as well as smooth muscle adaptation (functional remodeling) and oxidoreductase activity (redox homeostasis modulating) are also crucially implicated.

CONCLUSIONS: Our work, accomplished by network pharmacology and data mining, increases our understanding of TCM in VC therapy and may offer insightful information for future drug discovery investigations.

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