Abstract

Atrial fibrillation is a serious global public health risk. Conventional treatments for atrial fibrillation include surgery, pharmacologic cardioversion, anticoagulation, and ventricular rate control. There have been few studies on the treatment of atrial fibrillation by traditional Chinese medicine, and Yangxin Dingji decoction is one such traditional anti-arrhythmic herbal compound. However, there are few studies on its active ingredients and their possible mechanisms for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. We obtained the active chemical components of Yangxin Dingji decoction from different databases, analysed the bioavailability and pharmacodynamics of each active ingredient of Yangxin Dingji decoction using Swiss absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, and predicted its possible targets of action using traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology and SwissTargetPrediction. Then, we collected relevant targets of atrial fibrillation through DrugBank, therapeutic targets database, MalaCards, traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology, DisGeNet, and online mendelian inheritance in man. Based on this data protein-protein interaction networks were constructed. Finally, Metascape was systematically used to analyse the targets of Yangxin Dingji decoction intervention in atrial fibrillation. 213 active ingredients and 1191 Yangxin Dingji decoction targets were collected, and 362 atrial fibrillation-related targets were predicted, of which 18 intersected with Yangxin Dingji decoction targets. Molecular docking verified that Yangxin Dingji decoction can bind tightly to core targets. Based on the results of network pharmacology and enrichment analysis, we predicted that the main targets of Yangxin Dingji decoction intervention in atrial fibrillation which mainly treat atrial fibrillation through adrenergic signalling pathway, calcium signalling pathway, and voltage-gated potassium channel.