Uncovering the mechanism of Spatholobus suberectus for the treatment of cardiovascular diseasebased on network pharmacology and molecular docking technology
This study is to explore the pharmacological mechanisms of Spatholobus suberectus Dunn(S.suberectus)in the treatment of cardiovascular disease using network pharmacology and molecular dockingtechnology.The active ingredients and drug targets in S.suberectus were collected from the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharma-cology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP).The cardiovascular disease-related targets were obtained from the DrugBank and OMIM databases.Further,the targets of S.suberectus and the targets of cardiovascular diseases were screened out to obtain the potential targets of S.suberectus for treating cardiovascular diseases.A protein interaction(PPI)network was constructed using the online String database and Cytoscape software.The DAVID platform was used to perform GO analysis and pathway analysis on the overlapping targets,and AutoDock vina software was used to perform molecular docking between the bio-active components and hub targets.According to the screening criteria oforal bioavailability(OB)and drug-like activity(DL)and literature review,a total of 52 chemical components and 226 potential targets were obtained,and 538 disease targets were collected using"cardiovascular disease"as the search keyword.The treatment of S.suberectus for cardiovascular diseases may involve multiple pathways such as the immune system,inflammatory process and glucose and lipid metabolism.Binding energy value of the majority of components in S.suberectus and the hub genes(i.e.NOS3,IL-6,VEGFA,MMP9,and PPARG)was less than-5.0 kcal/mol.This study indicated that S.suberectus in treating cardiovascular diseasehad the characteristics of multiple ingredients,multiple targets and multiple pathways,which laid a foundation forfurther research.