Identification of Dalbergiae Odoriferae Lignum active ingredients and potential mechanisms in the treatment of adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity based on network pharmacology and experimental verification.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ingredients and mechanisms through which Dalbergiae Odoriferae Lignum (DOL) reduces adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity. DOL's ingredients and drug targets were acquired from Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), and adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity disease targets were gathered from GeneCards and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The therapeutic targets of DOL against adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity were identified by intersecting drug and disease targets. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were conducted using R. Subsequently, core targets were determined and used for molecular docking with DOL ingredients. In vitro and in vivo experiments validated DOL's primary ingredients against adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity efficacy. Western blot and immunohistochemistry verified its impact on target protein. After intersecting 530 drug targets and 51 disease targets, 19 therapeutic targets for DOL alleviated adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity were received. Molecular docking demonstrated that DOL primary ingredient formononetin had a robust binding affinity for nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3). Experimental results showed that formononetin effectively mitigated adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity. Additionally, western blot and immunohistochemistry showed that formononetin improved NOS3 expression. The network pharmacology and experimentation suggest that the primary ingredient of DOL, formononetin, may target NOS3 to act as a therapeutic agent for adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity.