Exploration on the mechanism of Radix Astragali-Caulis Spatholobi by Qi-invigorating and blood-activating combination for the treatment of atherosclerosis based on network pharmacology

The objective of this study was to investigate the main active ingredients, potential targets, and possible mechanisms of action of the combination of Radix Astragali and Caulis Spatholobi for the treatment of atherosclerosis using network pharmacology. The study aimed to provide a reference basis for the development of new formulations and clinical use of Chinese medicine. The main components of Radix Astragali and Caulis Spatholobi were obtained from the TCMSP, BATMAN-TCM database, and literature reports. The targets corresponding to the main components were imported into the Uniprot database to standardize the names, and target information was supplemented with the Swiss Target Prediction database. Disease-related targets were obtained from DrugBank, OMIM, CTD, GeneCards, and DisGeNET online databases. Venn tools were used to obtain the potential targets of Radix Astragali and Caulis Spatholobi for the treatment of AS. The intersecting genes were imported into the STRING 11.5 database to construct protein-protein interaction network maps and analyze their interactions. Cytoscape 3.7.1 software was used to mine their core targets. GO function and KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analysis were performed using the DAVID v2023q1 database. The results were imported into the “Bioinformatics Cloud Platform” to generate enrichment bubble maps. Finally, the “component-target-pathway” diagram was constructed using Cytoscape 3.7.1 software. The study found that 78 major active ingredients and 527 potential targets were obtained from Radix Astragali and Caulis Spatholobi . The main active components of the two in combination for the treatment of AS are quercetin, stigmasterol, kaempferol, luteolin, formononetin, etc. The key targets involve CDKN1A, E2F1, CDK4, CDK2, CDK1, RB1, TP53, CDKN1B, IL6, JUN, etc. The main pathways involved the AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, cancer pathway, etc. The biological processes involved include positive regulation of gene expression, negative regulation of apoptotic process, etc. The study initially verified the feasibility of the combination of Radix Astragali - Caulis Spatholobi by Qi-invigorating (promoting human metabolic activity) and blood-activating for the treatment of AS. It demonstrated that the combination of Chinese medicine has multi-level, multi-target, and multi-pathway mechanisms of action to treat the disease, providing a reference basis for the development and utilization of new drugs.