Abstract
Tangshen Formula (TSF) is a traditional Chinese medicine. Several studies have reported its effectiveness in diabetes mellitus (DM) and its complication, diabetic nephropathy. Since TSF is a mixture of seven herbs containing a large number of active ingredients, thus it is hypothesized that TSF could be effective for other DM complications, such as cardiovascular (CV) diseases. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the possible interaction mechanism of TSF with CV functions by using network pharmacology paradigm. This systematic study involved the development of a chemical-target database by retrieving the chemical constituents of TSF and their molecular targets in Homo sapiens. From this database, CV system-related targets (CVSTs) were identified and evolved into an interaction network. This network was developed by STITCH 5.0 database and analyzed through gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis using the ClueGO plugin. The number of retrieved TSF chemicals and their molecular targets was 611 and 631, respectively. Besides, the identified number of CVSTs was 39. The interaction network proposed several protein targets, such as SRC, JUN and STAT3, associated with CV functioning. GO enrichment analysis evolved to 67 GO terms. Most of these terms were found to have a close link with CV diseases. It is concluded that TSF interacts with CV functions through a number of pathways, such as temperature homeostasis, collagen catabolic process, and toll-like receptor signaling pathway, which argue that TSF could be effective for CV complications.