Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang, a conventional Chinese herb decoction, ameliorates radiation-induced heart disease via Nrf2/HMGB1 pathway

Yifan Huang; Minghan Cheng; Xiaoye Wang; Hongliang Dong; Jian Gao

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.1086206

Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang, a conventional Chinese herb decoction, ameliorates radiation-induced heart disease via Nrf2/HMGB1 pathway

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Jan 9:13:1086206. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1086206. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yifan Huang^{1

2}, Minghan Cheng¹, Xiaoye Wang^{1

3}, Hongliang Dong¹, Jian Gao¹

Affiliations

¹ Pediatric Translational Medicine Institute, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
² School of Public Health, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
³ School of Pharmacy, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Radiation-induced heart disease (RIHD), characterized by cardiac dysfunction and myocardial fibrosis, is one of the most common complications after cardiothoracic radiotherapy. Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang (DBT) is a conventional Chinese herb decoction composed of Radix Astragali membranaceus (RAM) and Radix Angelicae sinensis (RAS) at a ratio of 5:1, famous for its "blood-nourishing" effect. In this study, we aimed to investigate the cardioprotective effect of DBT on RIHD. Methods: C57BL mice at 8 weeks of age were divided into five groups, namely Control, Radiation, RDBT51 (Radiation with DBT, RAM:RAS = 5:1), RDBT11 (Radiation with DBT, RAM:RAS = 1:1), and RDBT15 (Radiation with DBT, RAM:RAS = 1:5). Results: We mainly found that radiation in the cardiothoracic region led to significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction, myocardial fibrotic lesions and cardiac injury accompanied by abnormally increased myocardial HMGB1 protein levels. Administration of conventional DBT significantly ameliorated left ventricular systolic dysfunction, alleviated myocardial fibrosis, and counteracted cardiac injury, all of which supported the protective effect of DBT on RIHD, involving upregulation of myocardial Nrf2 protein levels and downregulation of HMGB1 protein levels as underlying mechanisms. Conclusions: DBT exerts a significant protective effect on RIHD, and the Nrf2/ HMGB1 pathway probably plays an important role in this protective effect.

Keywords: cardiac injury; galectin-3 (Gal-3); myocardial fibrosis (MF); radix angelicae sinensis (RAS); radix astragali membranaceus (RAM); systolic dysfunction.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. (No. 81274172, 81473267 and 81973637); The National Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance and Innovation “Hundreds and Thousands” Talent Project: Young Qihuang Scholar Support Project of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2020.