Chinese ginseng helps prevent coronary heart disease

Chinese ginseng (Panax notoginseng), also known as notoginseng, is used as an herbal treatment for coronary heart disease. A team of scientists, in a study published in the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, investigated the mechanism behind this effect.

• The researchers investigated the mechanisms of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) in treating coronary heart disease (CHD) using gene interaction network and functional enrichment analysis.
• They used text mining to obtain CHD and PNS associated genes.
• Using the GeneMANIA Cytoscape plugin, the researchers built the gene-gene interaction networks of CHD and PNS, which they analyzed using the Cytoscape plugin.
• Functions were evaluated by gene functional enrichment analysis.
• Using network analysis, they identified the joint subnetwork of CHD network and PNS network.
• The researchers found that PNS directly targets 11 genes in the joint subnetwork and 85 other genes through the gene-gene network. In all, these interactions had an impact on a total of seven pathways. It is these seven pathways that are affected by the immunologic adjuvant, anticoagulant, hypolipidemic, antiplatelet and anti-hypertrophic activities of PNS.

The researchers concluded that Chinese notoginseng treats coronary heart disease through its anticoagulant and hypolipidemic effects.

Learn how to care for your heart naturally at Heart.news.

Journal Reference:

Yu G, Wang J. EXPLORING MECHANISMS OF PANAX NOTOGINSENG SAPONINS IN TREATING CORONARY HEART DISEASE BY INTEGRATING GENE INTERACTION NETWORK AND FUNCTIONAL ENRICHMENT ANALYSIS. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine. 16 May 2016;22(8):589–596. DOI: 10.1007/s11655-016-2472-7