Zhijing powder manages blood pressure by regulating PI3K/AKT signal pathway in hypertensive rats

Figures

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  Fig. 1. Relationships among the active components and targets of centipedes and scorpions. Pink represents centipede active components, purple represents the scorpion active components, orange represents components shared by centipedes and scorpions, green represents targets of centipedes and scorpions. There are 17 active components of centipede and 10 active components of scorpion, and 464 drug targets. The code numbers of drugs are presented in Table 1. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

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  Fig. 2. Intersection targets of diseases and drugs; Green represents drug targets. Blue represents disease targets; There are 464 drug targets, 1263 disease targets and 145 intersection targets. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

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  Fig. 3. (A) PPI network of ZJP in treating hypertension. 142 targets in this network showed the protein interaction, and 1310 edges indicated the interaction between proteins. (B) Screening and visualization of core targets. A total of 11 core targets were screened, which were AKT1, MAPK3, PTGS2, SRC, CASP3, EGFR, JUN, REN, PPARG, STAT3, ACE. (C) The ranking of the degree values of these targets.

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  Fig. 4. (A) Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. (B) KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. (C) Network relationship map of pathways and targets.

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  Fig. 5. ZJP treatment of hypertensive rats induced by combined high salt and cold stimuli. Differences of SBP among groups were not statistically significant during week of adaptive feeding (P > 0.05). SBP of Model and ZJP group was significantly higher in the second week (P < 0.05) and peaked at the fifth week after modeling (P < 0.05). Two weeks after treatments, SBP of ZJP group had decreased significantly versus Model group, #, P < 0.05, n = 8.

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  Fig. 6. Effect of ZJP improved vascular injury in hypertensive rats. (A) Histopathology with hematoxylin and eosin staining (50×) of the aorta. (B) Histopathology with hematoxylin and eosin staining (200×) of the aorta. (C) Masson staining of aorta (400×). (D) Quantification of vascular fibrosis by ImageJ software. (E) and (F) Lumen area of arteries and area of vessel wall measured by ImageJ software. *, P < 0.05 vs. Control group. #, P < 0.05 vs Model group, n = 5.

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  Fig. 7. ZJP ameliorated vascular oxidation stress of hypertension rats. Activity of (A) CK, (B) NO, (D) GSH, (E) CAT, and (F) SOD, and the content of (C) MDA, were detected by ELISA. *, P < 0.05 vs. Control group. #, P < 0.05 vs Model group, n = 7.

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  Fig. 8. Effects of ZJP on PI3K, AKT Expressions Levels Assessment of aortic expression of PI3K and AKT in rats by Western blot. *, P < 0.05 vs. Control group. #, P < 0.05 vs Model group, n = 3.