title: Study on material base and action mechanism of compound Danshen dripping pills for treatment of atherosclerosis based on modularity analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used in China and its surrounding countries in clinical treatments for centuries-long time. However, due to the complexity of TCM constituents, both action mechanism and material base of TCM remain nearly unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study was designed to uncover the action mechanism and material base of TCM in a low-cost manner.
  
  
  METHODS
  Compound Danshen dripping pills (DSP) is a widely used TCM for treatment of atherosclerosis, and was researched here to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. We constructed a heterogeneous network for DSP, identified the significant network module, and analyzed the primary pharmacological units by performing GO and pathways enrichment analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two significant network modules were identified from the heterogeneous network of DSP, and three compounds out of four hub nodes in the network were found to intervene in the process of atherosclerosis. Moreover, 13 out of 20 enriched pathways that were ranked in top 10 corresponding to both the two pharmacological units were found to be involved in the process of atherosclerosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Quercetin, luteolin and apigenin may be the main active compounds which modulate the signaling pathways, such as metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450, retinol metabolism, etc. The present method helps reveal the action mechanism and material base of DSP for treatment of atherosclerosis.
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Key Unit of Chinese Medicine Digitalization Quality Evaluation of SATCM, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Research Center for Quality Engineering Technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guangdong Universities, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Key Unit of Chinese Medicine Digitalization Quality Evaluation of SATCM, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Research Center for Quality Engineering Technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guangdong Universities, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Wen-Feng
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Key Unit of Chinese Medicine Digitalization Quality Evaluation of SATCM, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Research Center for Quality Engineering Technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guangdong Universities, Guangzhou 510006, PR China. Electronic address: gdpuchenchao@163.com.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Key Unit of Chinese Medicine Digitalization Quality Evaluation of SATCM, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Research Center for Quality Engineering Technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guangdong Universities, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Shu-Mei
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Key Unit of Chinese Medicine Digitalization Quality Evaluation of SATCM, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; The Research Center for Quality Engineering Technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guangdong Universities, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Wang
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001892:Camphanes; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D053723:Panax notoginseng; D027561:Salvia miltiorrhiza
chemical_list: D001892:Camphanes; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C000604051:danshen dripping pill
keywords: Action mechanism; Atherosclerosis; Compound Danshen dripping pills; Material base; Modularity analysis