Identifying the cardioprotective mechanism of Danyu Tongmai Granules against myocardial infarction by targeted metabolomics combined with network pharmacology

Background: Danyu Tongmai Granules (DY), the commercial Chinese medicine, was well-accepted cardiovascular protective actions in clinic. However, the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of DY on cardiovascular disease still need largely to be clarified. Purpose: Therefore, this study was designed to explore potential mechanisms of DY in myocardial infarction (MI) by integrated strategy of metabolomics and network pharmacology. Methods: Cardiomyocytes were subjected to H2O2 induced myocardial injury and rats were induced MI via isoproterenol (ISO) injection. The entire metabolic alterations in serum and heart tissues of experimental rats were profiled by UPLC-MS/MS. Based on the identified differential metabolites, the pathway analysis results were obtained and further validated using the network pharmacology approach. Results: We found that DY exerted significant cardioprotective effects in vitro and in vivo , and ameliorated inflammatory cell infiltration and cardiomyocyte apoptosis induced by ISO. The metabolomics data suggested that DY mainly affected the amino acid metabolism (i.e., valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, arginine biosynthesis, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, phenylalanine metabolism, arginine biosynthesis, glycine, serine, as well as the alanine metabolism, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, etc.). Simultaneously, DY participated in the regulation of the biosynthesis of bile acids and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids. Notably, DY significantly reduced the biosynthesis of valine, leucine and isoleucine to regulating the metabolism of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) in infarcted myocardium, thus blocking the inflammation via inhibiting the expression of NLRP3 inflammasome in ISO-induced rats. The anti-inflammatory system of DY was further validated with the results of network pharmacology. Conclusion: Our study, for the first time, confirmed that DY inhibited inflammation and further exerted significant anti-myocardial infarction effect. Additionally, our work further demonstrated that the myocardial protective effect of DY was contributed to the inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome activation by regulating BCAAs in infarcted myocardium using the comprehensive metabolomics, molecular biology and network analysis. Overall, our study gained new insights into the role of the relationship between the metabolic regulation of BCAAs and the NLRP3 inflammasome against MI.

Automated summary

This study used an integrated strategy of metabolomics and network pharmacology to explore the potential mechanisms of Danyu Tongmai Granules (DY) in myocardial infarction (MI). It confirmed that DY has anti-inflammatory effects and significant protective effects against MI. The study also revealed that the myocardial protective effect of DY is achieved by inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome activation through the regulation of branched chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism.