A Systems Pharmacology-Based Study of the Molecular Mechanisms of San Cao Decoction for Treating Hypertension

Abstract EN

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a longstanding history and has gained widespread clinical applications.

San Cao Decoction (SCD) is an experience prescription first formulated by Prof.

Duzhou Liu.

We previously demonstrated its antihypertensive effects; however, to systematically explain the underlying mechanisms of action, we employed a systems pharmacology approach for pharmacokinetic screening and target prediction by constructing protein-protein interaction networks of hypertension-related and putative SCD-related targets, and Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery enrichment analysis.

We identified 123 active compounds in SCD and 116 hypertension-related targets.

Furthermore, the enrichment analysis of the drug-target network showed that SCD acts in a multidimensional manner to regulate PI3K-Akt-endothelial nitric oxide synthase signaling to maintain blood pressure.

Our results highlighted the molecular mechanisms of antihypertensive actions of medicinal herbs at a systematic level.