Systems biology identifies that regulation of type I interferon signaling is involved in the anti-atherogenic effects of andrographis paniculata

Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees is a medicinal herb widely used in many Asian countries. Currently, there is little information about the effects and underlying mechanisms of whole andrographis paniculata plant on the development of atherosclerosis. To address this question, we carried out experiments in mouse primary peritoneal macrophages treated with crude serum preparations isolated from normal rats receiving vehicle or andrographis decoction treatment. Genome-wide mRNA sequencing revealed that ~70% of the genes regulated by lipopolysaccharides were reversed by andrographis. Further bioinformatics analysis indicated that andrographis inhibited type I interferon signaling. Given the established pathogenic effects of type I interferons in atherosclerosis, our results suggest that regulation of the type I interferon signaling in macrophage cells is partly involved in the anti-atherogenic effects of andrographis paniculata.

穿心莲（Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees）是一种在众多亚洲国家广泛应用的药用草本植物。当前，针对完整穿心莲植株对动脉粥样硬化发生发展的作用及其潜在分子机制的相关研究信息仍较为有限。为解答这一科学问题，我们开展了如下实验：采用经溶媒对照处理或穿心莲水煎剂干预的正常大鼠所分离得到的粗血清制剂，处理小鼠原代腹腔巨噬细胞。全基因组mRNA测序结果显示，约70%受脂多糖（lipopolysaccharides）调控的基因表达可被穿心莲逆转。进一步的生物信息学分析表明，穿心莲可抑制I型干扰素（type I interferon）信号通路。鉴于I型干扰素在动脉粥样硬化中已被证实的致病效应，本研究结果提示，巨噬细胞中I型干扰素信号通路的调控作用，部分参与了穿心莲发挥抗动脉粥样硬化效应的分子机制。