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Guanxin V Relieves Ventricular Remodeling by Inhibiting Inflammation: Implication from Virtual Screening, Systematic Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Validation

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Abstract

Objective

To reveal the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Guanxin V, which is prescribed for ventricular remodeling in clinical practice.

Methods

Guanxin V-, ventricular remodeling-, and inflammation-related targets were obtained through an integrated strategy of virtual screening and systematic pharmacology, and then the shared targets were visualised with a Venn diagram. Guanxin V network and the protein-protein interaction network were drawn, and enrichment analysis was conducted. Finally, the main results obtained from the integrated strategy were validated by molecular docking and in vivo experiments.

Results

A total of 251, 11,425, and 15,246 Guanxin V-, ventricular remodeling-, and inflammation-related targets were acquired, respectively. Then, 211 shared targets were considered to contribute to the mechanism of ventricular remodeling treated by Guanxin V. Guanxin network and the protein-protein interaction network were drawn, and enrichment analysis showed some cardiovascular-related biological processes and signaling pathways. Molecular docking revealed that the Guanxin V-derived compounds could align with key targets. Final in vivo experiments proved that Guanxin V reverses ventricular remodeling by inhibiting inflammation.

Conclusion

Guanxin V relieves ventricular remodeling by regulating inflammation, which provides new ideas for the anti-ventricular remodeling mechanism of Guanxin V.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all individuals involved in GXV preparation. We thank CHEN Si-qi and YAN Jia-yu from Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine for their help in the experiment. We are also grateful to all research scientists who participated in the aforementioned databases.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210022, China

    Bo Liang &  Ning Gu

  2. Department of Nephrology, the Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease of Chongqing, Chongqing Clinical Research Center of Kidney and Urology Diseases, Xinqiao Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, 400037, China

    Bo Liang

  3. School of Chinese Medicine, School of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Xiao-xiao Zhang

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  1. Bo Liang
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Contributions

Liang B and Gu N conceived, designed, and planned the study. Liang B and Gu N acquired and analyzed the data. Zhang XX and Liang B completed the experiments. Liang B, Zhang XX, and Gu N interpreted the results. Liang B and Zhang XX drafted the manuscript and Gu N contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ning Gu.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81774229) and Jiangsu Leading Talent Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Jiangsu TCM 2018 No.4)

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Liang, B., Zhang, Xx. & Gu, N. Guanxin V Relieves Ventricular Remodeling by Inhibiting Inflammation: Implication from Virtual Screening, Systematic Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Validation. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 29, 1077–1086 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-023-3642-z

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