Antihypertensive mechanism of the medicine food homology compound solution with high ACE inhibition rate based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

Certain instances of medicine food homology (MFH) have an antihypertensive effect, which has a therapeutic effect on hypertension, but their mechanism in treating hypertension and improving blood pressure is still unclear. The objective of this study is to analyze the potential bioactive substances and the hypotensive mechanism by which the MFH compound solution (Hawthorn:Lycium barbarum:Cassia = 4:1:1) with a high angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition rate. This will be achieved through the use of network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques, which will be further validated through experimental testing. The key components in the MFH compound solution were obtained by constructing the component-disease target network, and Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were used to explore the pathways of the MFH compound solution participating in anti-hypertension. The content of the main active ingredients in the MFH compound solution was identified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The main active components were quercetin, beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, kaempferol, and isorhamnetin, while the identified core genes were AKT1 and TP53. Through pathway analysis, the mechanisms of the MFH compound solution against hypertension may be Lipid and atherosclerosis, Calcium signaling pathway, PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, etc. Moreover, the molecular docking of five key compounds and the top five targets verified the reliability of network pharmacology results. HPLC analysis revealed that these five active substances were detected in the MFH compound solution, where kaempferol was the most abundant. This study revealed that the MFH compound exerted a hypotensive effect through multiple targets and pathways.