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. 2020 Feb 27:2020:5053914.
doi: 10.1155/2020/5053914. eCollection 2020.

Deciphering the Active Compounds and Mechanisms of Qixuehe Capsule on Qi Stagnation and Blood Stasis Syndrome: A Network Pharmacology Study

Yu-Xi Huang  1   2 , Ding-Qiao Xu  1 , Shi-Jun Yue  1 , Yan-Yan Chen  1 , Hui-Juan Tao  3 , Rui-Jia Fu  1 , Li-Ming Xing  1 , Taiyi Wang  2 , Yu-Ling Ma  2 , Bao-An Wang  4 , Yu-Ping Tang  1   3 , Jin-Ao Duan  3
Affiliations

Deciphering the Active Compounds and Mechanisms of Qixuehe Capsule on Qi Stagnation and Blood Stasis Syndrome: A Network Pharmacology Study

Yu-Xi Huang et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. .

Abstract

Background: Qixuehe capsule (QXH), a Chinese patent medicine, has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of menstrual disorders. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory, qi stagnation and blood stasis syndrome (QS-BSS) is the main syndrome type of menstrual disorders. However, the pharmacodynamic effect of QXH in treating QS-BSS is not clear, and the main active compounds and underlying mechanisms remain unknown.

Methods: A rat model of QS-BSS was established to evaluate the pharmacodynamic effect of QXH. Thereafter, a network pharmacology approach was performed to decipher the active compounds and underlying mechanisms of QXH.

Results: QXH could significantly reduce the rising whole blood viscosity (WBV) and plasma viscosity (PV) but also normalize prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), and fibrinogen (FIB) content in QS-BSS rats. Based on partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), the low-dose QXH-intervened (QXH-L) and the high-dose QXH-intervened (QXH-H) groups seemed the most effective by calculating the relative distance to normality. Through network pharmacology, QXH may improve hemorheological abnormality mainly via 185 compounds-51 targets-28 pathways, whereas 184 compounds-68 targets-28 pathways were associated with QXH in improving coagulopathy. Subsequently, 25 active compounds of QXH were verified by UPLC-Q/TOF-MS. Furthermore, 174 active compounds of QXH were shared in improving hemorheological abnormality and coagulopathy in QS-BSS, each of which can act on multiple targets to be mainly involved in complement and coagulation cascades, leukocyte transendothelial migration, PPAR signaling pathway, VEGF signaling pathway, and arachidonic acid metabolism. The attribution of active compounds indicated that Angelicae Sinensis Radix (DG), Paeoniae Radix Rubra (CS), Carthami Flos (HH), Persicae Semen (TR), and Corydalis Rhizoma (YHS) were the vital herbs of QXH in treating QS-BSS.

Conclusion: QXH can improve the hemorheology abnormality and coagulopathy of QS-BSS, which may result from the synergy of multiple compounds, targets, and pathways.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The workflow of QXH in treating QS-BSS combined with pharmacodynamic evaluation and network pharmacology prediction.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) PLS-DA score plot of hemorheology and coagulation function indexes among all groups. (b) VIP score plot of hemorheology and coagulation function indexes between control and model groups. WBV200 s−1: whole blood viscosity in 200 s shear rate; WBV100 s−1: whole blood viscosity in 100 s shear rate; WBV50 s−1: whole blood viscosity in 50 s shear rate; WBV5 s−1: whole blood viscosity in 5 s shear rate; WBV1 s−1: whole blood viscosity in 1 s shear rate; PV: plasma viscosity; APTT: activated partial thromboplastin time; PT: prothrombin time; TT: thrombin time; FIB: fibrinogen content.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The HH-CH-TH network of QXH (hemorheological abnormality module; red node: herbs, green node: compounds, and blue node: targets).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Gene ontology enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis of the targets of QXH related to hemorheological abnormality module. (a) Biological process. (b) Molecular function. (c) Cellular component. (d) KEGG pathway.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The HC-CC-TC network of QXH (coagulopathy module, red node: herbs, green node: compounds, and blue node: targets).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Gene ontology enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis of the targets of QXH related to coagulopathy module. (a) Biological process. (b) Molecular function. (c) Cellular component. (d) KEGG Pathway.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The analysis of overlapped compounds, targets, and pathways of the pathological processes: hemorheological abnormality and coagulopathy. (a) The overlapped compounds. (b) The overlapped targets. (c) The overlapped pathways. (d) KEGG pathway of the overlapped targets. (e) Biological process. (f) Molecular function. (g) Cellular component.
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