Systems Pharmacology-Dissection of the Molecular Mechanisms of Dragon’s Blood in Improving Ischemic Stroke Prognosis

Abstract EN

Ethnopharmacological Relevance.

Dragon’s blood (DB) is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine that has many pharmacological effects, including antiplatelet aggregation, promoting epidermal growth, and anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.

The main component of Longxuetongluo capsule and Dragon’s blood dropping pills is DB’s standard phenolic extract, which was used for ischemic stroke prognosis in China.

Aim of Study.

To dissect the molecular mechanisms of Dragon’s blood (DB) in improving ischemic stroke prognosis.

Materials and Methods.

(1) Based on system-pharmacology platform, the potential active compounds of DB are screened out according to ADME.

(2) The ischemic stroke-related targets are predicted by utilizing these active compounds as probes, mapping the targets to the CTD database to establish a molecular-target-disease network.

(3) To analyze the mechanism of DB treatment for the prognosis of ischemic stroke, we used the Metascape and DAVID databases to construct “ischemic stroke pathways”.

(4) PC12 cells were used to explore the protective effect of loureirin B on oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) injury, and BV-2 cells were used to determine the anti-inflammation effect of 4′,7-dihydroxyflavone.

Results.

Finally, we obtained 38 active compounds and 58 stroke-related targets.

Network and pathway analysis indicate that DB is effective in the treatment of ischemic stroke by enhancing cell survival and inhibiting inflammatory and antiplatelet activation.

In in vitro experiments, the main component loureirin B promoted the expression of HO-1 and Bcl-2 via positive regulation of PI3K/AKT/CREB and Nrf2 signaling pathways in PC12 cells against OGD/R damage.

And the anti-inflammatory activity of 4′,7-dihydroxyflavone was related to the inhibition of COX-2, TNF-α, and IL-6 in LPS-induced BV-2 cells.

Conclusions.

In our study, the results illustrated that DB in improving ischemic stroke prognosis may involve enhancing cell survival and antioxidant, anti-inflammation, and antiplatelet activities.