Network and 16S rRNA Sequencing-Combined Approach Provides Insightal Evidence of Vitamin K for Salt-Sensitive Hypertension.

Vitamin K (VK2), found to act to treat hypertension, has been widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries nowadays. However, the potential targets and molecular mechanisms of VK2 for salt-sensitive hypertension have not been fully investigated. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the potential molecular mechanisms of VK2 for salt-sensitive hypertension using network pharmacology and 16S rRNA sequencing strategy. The network pharmacology-based findings from KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that VK2-treated salt-sensitive hypertension was mechanically associated with the complement and coagulation cascades, calcium signaling pathway, renin-angiotensin system, etc. A total of 29 different bacteria in an animal experiment after VK2 supplementation were screened and functionally enriched using PICRUSt2. Additionally, 10 signaling pathways were identified in which the renin-angiotensin system was found to be the potential molecular mechanisms with the greatest change in multiple and statistical significance. Moreover, the results of the renin-angiotensin system-related protein expression exhibited VK2-inhibited renin-angiotensin system in salt-induced hypertensive mice, which significantly verified the previous biological and functional prediction analysis. Finally, spearman correlation analysis showed the different bacteria such as , etc., had a positive or negative correlation with renin-angiotensin system-related proteins in salt-induced mice. In conclusion, the potential molecular mechanisms of VK2 for salt-sensitive hypertension may be beneficially achieved by the specific inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system, contributing to the development for a new preventive strategy of salt-sensitive hypertension.