Mechanism of Cistanche deserticola Ma in the Treatment of Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion (I/R) Injury Based on Network Pharmacology and In Vitro Experiments

To investigate the mechanism of Cistanche deserticola Ma (CDA) in the treatment of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury by network pharmacology and cell experiments. The main active components of CDA were collected from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP). I/R-related targets were identified from DisGeNET, OMIMD, and TTD; the I/R protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using the STRING input. The targets of CDA that inhibit I/R injury in Matescape and Microshengxin were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Cell viability, levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA), and protein expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and serine/threonine kinase 1 (Akt1) were determined. A total of 236 targets were identified, with PI3K, Akt, epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR), and another kinase being the major targets, and according to GO and KEGG analysis, CDA was most likely to inhibit I/R through the PI3K-Akt pathway. The optimal concentration of 10% medicated serum of CDA was determined to be the most effective concentration. The levels of LDH and MDA were significantly decreased in the CDA and BEZ23 groups, but the levels of SOD were significantly increased, thereby alleviating cell damage. In addition, the expression of PI3K, Akt, and p-AKT proteins was significantly reduced in the CDA group. CDA alleviates I/R injury through antioxidation and inhibition of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.