Ameliorative Effects and Mechanism of Buyang Huanwu Decoction on Pulmonary Vascular Remodeling: Network and Experimental Analyses

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a severe and progressive cardiovascular disease. Its pathological mechanism is complex, and the common pathological feature is pulmonary vascular remodeling. The efficacy of existing therapeutic agents is limited. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has its unique advantages in the prevention and treatment of complex diseases. In this study, the approaches of network pharmacology combined with biological verification are employed to explore the role of Buyang huanwu decoction (BYHWD) in the treatment of PH. The active ingredients in BYHWD were first screened based on the ADME properties of the compounds. In turn, the mean of data mining was utilized to analyze the potential targets of BYHWD for the treatment of PH. On this basis, a series of interaction networks were constructed for searching the core targets. The genes including AKT1, MMP9, NOS3/eNOS, and EGFR were found to be possible key targets in BYHWD. The results of enrichment analysis showed that the targets of BYHWD focused on smooth muscle cell proliferation, migration, and apoptosis, which are classic biological processes involved in pulmonary vascular remodeling and are closely related to the PI3K-Akt-eNOS pathway. The methods of biological experiments were adopted to verify the above results. The present study elucidated the mechanism of BYHWD in the treatment of PH and provided new ideas for the clinical use of TCM in the treatment of PH.