Understanding the diverse functions of Huatan Tongluo Fang on rheumatoid arthritis from a pharmacological perspective

Huatan Tongluo Fang (HTTLF) is a traditional herbal formula that can resolve phlegm and dredge collaterals. HTTLF has also been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA); however, the mechanism underlying the therapeutic effects of HTTLF on RA has not been clearly elucidated at the molecular level. In the present study, an integrated model of system pharmacology containing chemical space analysis, potential active compound prediction and compound-target-disease network was constructed to investigate the molecular mechanisms of HTTLF. The compounds from HTTLF dispersed well in the chemical space. Most of the compounds from HTTLF had similar chemical spaces to drug/drug-like compounds associated with RA, according to the MDL Drug Data Report. A total of 127 potentially active compounds and 17 targets of RA were identified. Among them, 50 compounds interacted with ≥2 targets, while 77 compounds interacted with only one target. In addition, 17 targets were associated with 82 diseases that belonged to 26 categories. These results indicate that HTTLF has diverse chemical spaces and polypharmacology with regards to the treatment of RA. In addition, HTTLF demonstrated therapeutic potential against diverse diseases other than RA, including osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis and brain cancer. This study provides a novel platform for understanding how HTTLF treats RA; this is beneficial for explaining the diverse functions of HTTLF with regards to RA, and may help develop novel compounds with desirable therapeutic targets to treat RA.