Use of a Systematic Pharmacological Methodology to Explore the Mechanism of Shengmai Powder in Treating Diabetic Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular complications, such as diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM), are the leading cause of death in diabetic patients. Shengmai Powder (SMP) was found to have cardioprotective effects. MATERIAL AND METHODS Based on the systematic pharmacological methodology, this research determined the genes of DCM and the known targets of SMP, predicted potential compounds and targets of SMP, constructed networks for DCM and SMP, and performed network analysis. RESULTS Five network were constructed: (1) the DCM gene PPI network; (2) the Compound-compound target network of SMP; (3) the SMP-DCM PPI network; (4) the Compound-known target network of SMP; (5) and the SMP known target-DCM PPI network. Several DCM and treatment related targets, clusters, signaling pathways, and biological processes were found. CONCLUSIONS SMP is able to regulate glycometabolism-related, lipid metabolism-related, inflammatory response-related, oxidative stress-related signaling pathways, and biological processes and targets, which suggests that SMP may have a therapeutic effect on DCM.

Figure 1

Diabetic cardiomyopathy network.

Figure 2

Cluster of diabetic cardiomyopathy network.

Figure 3

Pathway of diabetic cardiomyopathy network (Blue circle stands for breast cancer gene. Red diamond stands for pathway).

Figure 4

Compound-compound target network of SMP consist of 400 compound targets and 40 compounds (Pink hexagon stand for compound targets; The circles with different colors stand for compounds of different herbs: orange circle – Schisandra chinensis, Schisandraceae, yellow circle – Ophiopogon japonicas, Liliaceae, blue circle – Panax ginseng, Araliaceae. Red diamond stands for common compound of Schisandra chinensis, Schisandraceae and Panax ginseng, Araliaceae).

Figure 5

SMP-DCM network (Pink, blue, purple circle stand for compound target, DCM genes, DCM-compound target, resp.).

Figure 6

Cluster of SMP-DCM network (Pink, blue, purple circle stands for compound target, DCM genes and compound-DCM target, resp.).

Figure 7

Pathway o of SMP-DCM network (Blue circle stands for compound target. Red diamond stands for pathway. The hexagons with different colors stand for compounds of different herbs: orange hexagon – Schisandra chinensis, Schisandraceae, yellow hexagon – Ophiopogon japonicas, Liliaceae, blue hexagon – Panax ginseng, Araliaceae. Red triangle stands for common compound of Schisandra chinensis, Schisandraceae and Panax ginseng, Araliaceae).

Figure 8

Compound-known target network (Blue hexagon stand for known target. The representative of red, orange circle, and purple and red diamond is the same as Figure 4).

Figure 9

SMP known target-DCM network (Pink, blue, purple circle stand for known target, DCM genes, DCM-compound target, resp.).

Figure 10

Cluster of SMP known target-DCM network (Pink, blue, purple circle stands for known target, DCM genes and known-DCM target, resp.).

Figure 11

Pathway o of SMP known target-DCM network (Blue circle stands for known target. Red diamond stands for pathway. Yellow, green hexagon stand for Schisandra chinensis, Schisandraceae, Panax ginseng, Araliaceae, rep.).