title: Systems pharmacology exploration of botanic drug pairs reveals the mechanism for treating different diseases.
abstract: Multi-herb therapy has been widely used in Traditional Chinese medicine and tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual. However, the potential molecular or systems mechanisms of them to treat various diseases have not been fully elucidated. To address this question, a systems pharmacology approach, integrating pharmacokinetics, pharmacology and systems biology, is used to comprehensively identify the drug-target and drug-disease networks, exemplified by three representative Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae herb pairs for treating various diseases (coronary heart disease, dysmenorrheal and nephrotic syndrome). First, the compounds evaluation and the multiple targeting technology screen the active ingredients and identify the specific targets for each herb of three pairs. Second, the herb feature mapping reveals the differences in chemistry and pharmacological synergy between pairs. Third, the constructed compound-target-disease network explains the mechanisms of treatment for various diseases from a systematic level. Finally, experimental verification is taken to confirm our strategy. Our work provides an integrated strategy for revealing the mechanism of synergistic herb pairs, and also a rational way for developing novel drug combinations for treatments of complex diseases.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Endemic Phytomedicine Resources, Ministry of Education; Pharmacology Department, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China.|Center of Bioinformatics, Northwest A &F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China.|Institute of Arthritis Research, Shanghai Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guanghua Integrative Medicine Hospital/Shanghai University of T.C.M, Shanghai 200052, China.|Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Endemic Phytomedicine Resources, Ministry of Education; Pharmacology Department, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China.
authors.forename: Jinan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Endemic Phytomedicine Resources, Ministry of Education; Pharmacology Department, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China.
authors.forename: Ziyin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Endemic Phytomedicine Resources, Ministry of Education; Pharmacology Department, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Arthritis Research, Shanghai Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guanghua Integrative Medicine Hospital/Shanghai University of T.C.M, Shanghai 200052, China.|Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Aiping
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Endemic Phytomedicine Resources, Ministry of Education; Pharmacology Department, School of Pharmacy, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China.|Center of Bioinformatics, Northwest A &F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Yonghua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001682:Biological Availability; D062313:Databases, Pharmaceutical; D004338:Drug Combinations; D004357:Drug Synergism; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D062105:Molecular Docking Simulation; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D008517:Phytotherapy; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004338:Drug Combinations; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal