† These authors contributed equally.
Background: Myocardial Infarction (MI) is a cardiovascular disease with
a high morbidity and mortality rate. While MI is currently treated with
pharmaceuticals, there is a need for new treatment options: compound Chinese
medicines may have unique advantages for the treatment of MI. Methods: A
combination of network pharmacology and experimental verification is used to
identify the ingredients and mechanism of Compound Longmaining (CLMN) for
treating MI. Network pharmacology combined with the gene expression omnibus (GEO)
chip method is used to analyze the primary pathway of CLMN for treating MI, and
then molecular docking is used to verify the affinity of key target proteins in
the primary pathway that bind to active molecules. The major active compounds of
CLMN are screened using the docking score results. The CIBERSORT algorithm is
used to evaluate immune cell infiltration in MI, and high performance liquid
chromatography (HPLC) is used to control the quality of the components. Finally,
a mouse model is established to verify the molecular mechanism of CLMN for
treating MI using hematoxlyn eosin (HE) staining and immunohistochemistry.
Results: By utilizing network pharmacology combined with molecular
docking, the mechanism of action of CLMN for the treatment of MI was found to
possibly be related to the ingredients of puerarin, daidzein, ferulic
acid, chrysin, and galangin. These molecules regulate the NF-Kappa B signaling
pathway and the expression of RELA, IKBKB, NKBIA, and
other targets. The CIBERSORT algorithm and ggplot2 package analysis were used to
distinguish the immune cells, such as neutrophils, macrophages, and T cells, that
play a key role in the development of MI. HPLC controlled the quality of the
screened medicinal ingredients. An immunohistochemical analysis showed that the
TNF-
