Background: Panax notoginseng, a Chinese herbal medicine, has been widely used to treat vascular diseases. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the complications of diabetic microangiopathy. According to recent studies, the application of Panax notoginseng extract and related Chinese patent medicine preparations can significantly improve DR. However, the pharmacological mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to decipher the potential mechanism of Panax notoginseng treatment of DR using network pharmacology.

Methods: We evaluated and screened the active compounds of Panax notoginseng using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database and collected potential targets of the compounds by target fishing. A multi-source database was also used to organize targets of DR. The potential targets as the treatment of DR with Panax notoginseng were then obtained by matching the compound targets with the DR targets. Using protein-protein interaction networks and topological analysis, interactions between potential targets were identified. In addition, we also performed gene ontology-biological process and pathway enrichment analysis for the potential targets by using the Biological Information Annotation Database.

Results: Eight active ingredients of Panax notoginseng and 31 potential targets for the treatment of DR were identified. The screening and enrichment analysis revealed that the treatment of DR using Panax notoginseng primarily involved 28 biological processes and 10 related pathways. Further analyses indicated that angiogenesis, inflammatory reactions, and apoptosis may be the main processes involved in the treatment of DR with Panax notoginseng. In addition, we determined that the mechanism of intervention of Panax notoginseng in treating DR may involve five core targets, VEGFA, MMP-9, MMP-2, FGF2, and COX-2.

Conclusion: Panax notoginseng may treat diabetic retinopathy through the mechanism of network pharmacological analysis. The underlying molecular mechanisms were closely related to the intervention of angiogenesis, inflammation, and apoptosis with VEGFA, MMP-9, MMP-2, FGF2, and COX-2 being possible targets.

背景：中药三七已被广泛用于治疗血管疾病。糖尿病性视网膜病（DR）是糖尿病性微血管病的并发症之一。根据最近的研究，三七提取物和相关中成药制剂的应用可以显着改善DR。但是，其药理机制仍不清楚。因此，本研究的目的是通过网络药理学来了解三七治疗DR的潜在机制。

方法：我们使用中药系统药理数据库对三七的活性成分进行了评估和筛选，并通过靶标捕捞收集了潜在的靶标。还使用多源数据库来组织灾难恢复的目标。然后通过将化合物靶标与DR靶标匹配来获得潜在的靶标以三七来治疗DR。使用蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用网络和拓扑分析，确定了潜在靶标之间的相互作用。此外，我们还使用生物信息注释数据库对潜在目标进行了基因本体生物学过程和途径富集分析。

结果：确定了三七的有效成分和31种潜在的DR治疗靶点。筛选和富集分析表明，使用三七可治疗DR主要涉及28个生物学过程和10个相关途径。进一步的分析表明，血管生成，炎症反应和细胞凋亡可能是三七治疗DR的主要过程。此外，我们确定三七治疗DR的干预机制可能涉及五个核心靶标，即VEGFA，MMP-9，MMP-2，FGF2和COX-2。

结论：三七可以通过网络药理分析机制治疗糖尿病性视网膜病变。潜在的分子机制与血管生成，炎症和细胞凋亡的干预密切相关，VEGFA，MMP-9，MMP-2，FGF2和COX-2可能是靶标。