Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) is one of the major fat-soluble ingredients in Salvia miltiorrhiza which has been widely used for various inflammatory conditions associated with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disorders. However, the underlying anti-inflammatory mechanisms of Tan IIA are incompletely understood. The purpose of this study was to illuminate the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Tan IIA based on the protein interaction network (PIN) analysis. A PIN of Tan IIA was constructed with 281 nodes and 814 interactions and analyzed by gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis based on Markov Cluster algorithm (MCL). Three modules were associated with anti-inflammatory actions. The most interesting finding of this study was that the anti-inflammatory effect of Tan IIA may be partly attributable to the mediate activation of TRAF2, TRAF3 and TRAF6, to inhibit the toll-like receptor signaling pathway and combine with AGER. Therefore, the module-based network analysis approach will be a new method for better understanding the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Tan IIA.
Keywords: GO enrichment analysis; Protein interaction network; Tanshinone IIA; anti-inflammatory actions; module.