Revealing the synergistic mechanism of Shenfu Decoction for anti-heart failure through network pharmacology strategy

The present study was designed to investigate the targets and synergistic mechanism of Shenfu Decoction (SFD) in the treatment of heart failure. A heart failure animal models was established to evaluate the pharmacological effects of SFD for anti-heart failure, then constructed ingredient-target interaction network by developing ingredient and target databases, the Discovery sdudio software was used for molecular docking. In addition, we validated the predicted protein targets of active ingredients in SFD by using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology. Our results demonstrated that SFD could enhance ejection fraction, alleviate myocardial histopathological characteristics, and reduce the level of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), aldosterone (ALD), atrial natriuretic polypeptide (ANP) and Renin (REN) in heart failure rat model. In addition, the ingredient database including 349 constituents and target database including 236 proteins were established, and 75 proteins were screened and identified by molecular docking strategy. 22 core target proteins were identified through network pharmacology, and the component-core target network was constructed. Finally, the affinity between the compounds and targets were verified by the SPR analysis method. The present study suggested that SFD may act on ACE 2, REN, ACE, ICAM-1, EGF, HTR2B, PARP1, NPPB and other proteins through AC, BAC, ACN, Re, Rg1, Rb1 to exert synergistic effects against heart failure.