Aim of the study
To validate the mechanism of DDD in AS and HLP based on network pharmacology and in vitro experiments. Materials and
Conclusion
DDD exerts therapeutic effects on AS and HLP through multiple targets and pathways, and improves mitochondrial function, reduces ROS content, inhibits ferroptosis and apoptosis by activating the HIF-1 signaling pathway, which provides reliable theoretical and experimental support for DDD treatment of AS and HLP.
Methods
The chemical components of DDD were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) database and literature mining, and the disease targets of AS and HLP were obtained from the Gencards, OMIM, and DisGeNET databases. The intersection genes were imported into the STRING database to construct protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and the DAVID database was used for gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Combined with the
Results
The results showed that network pharmacology predicted 112 targets related to DDD treatment of AS and HLP, and the top 10 related pathways are: Lipid and atherosclerosis, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, Chemical carcinogenesis - receptor activation, Pathways in cancer, Proteoglycans in cancer, Fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, HIF-1 signaling pathway, Alcoholic liver disease, PPAR signaling pathway, and Coronavirus disease-COVID-19. In vitro experiments showed that DDD effectively reduced lipid accumulation in FFA-treated L02 cells; DDD attenuated mitochondrial damage and reduced ROS content; DDD inhibited ferroptosis and apoptosis; DDD up-regulated the expression of HIF-1α, Glutathione Peroxidase 4(GPX4), and Bcl2 proteins, and down-regulated expression of Bax protein.