Exploring the cardioprotective role of Nelumbo nucifera: a review of experimental studies and network pharmacology-based mechanistic insights

Background: Nelumbo nucifera is an aquatic plant distributed in the Asian countries. The plant has been part of the diet; therefore, much of the ancient manuscripts have documented its use in the traditional medicinal systems. Materials and Methods: The evidence from the modern scientific literature indicates that plant demonstrates a propensity in alleviating hypertension, cardiac failure, and ischemia. The evidences were collected to provide an eagle-eye view of the various therapeutic capabilities of the plant in cardiovascular disorders. Result and Discussion: The evidences are arranged as preclinical, further delimiting to in silico and in vivo , and clinical to offer the reader an overview of what has been documented about the plant in treating diseases affecting cardiovascular health. Some of the less explored metabolites of the plant, obtained from the bioactivity of Indian medicinal plants database, have been explored to identify its potential disease targets in a database like SWISS-PRED. A network pharmacology approach was adopted to construct a network between the cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the plant metabolites’ target. The hub genes in the network were identified. To ensure if the important genes identified in the hub gene analysis area are part of the actual disease progression in in vivo conditions, the gene engine omnibus datasets, viz., GSE282042 and GSE283003 were queried in the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The genes EGFR, TGFB1, JAK2, PTGS1, APP, PIK3CG, and MAOA were found to be up-regulated in GSE283003 and the literature probing identified these genes to be a potential therapeutic target. The enrichment of the genes in g:profiler databases further underscores the importance of the genes in the CVD pathology. Conclusion: This work elaborates on the usefulness of the plant, N. nucifera in treating cardiovascular ailments.