Abstract: Objective To predict the possible targets and signaling pathways involved in anti-cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by Panax Notoginseng (PN) based on bioinformatics. Methods Gene expressions in the cerebral cortex of the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model group and the Panax notoginseng (PN) drug delivery group of rats were obtained from the GEO database. The key differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened before GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analyses were performed to explore the possible molecular mechanisms by which Panax notoginseng combated cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. Results Four hundred and forty-four differential mRNAs were screened, and the key DEGs were Fn1, Gsk3b and Snap25. Twenty significant pathways were obtained after KEGG enrichment pathway analysis. Based on the mechanism for cerebral ischemia/ reperfusion injury and related literature, the key pathways were found to be to Rap1 signaling pathway, cAMP signal pathway, autophagy signal pathway, and AMPK signal pathway. There have been few studies related to Panax notoginseng and autophagy pathways on the MCAO rat model. No studies have been found on Panax notoginseng related targets of Gsk3b and Snap25. Conclusion Panax notoginseng may protect against cerebral ischemia / reperfusion injury by combating inflammation, oxidation, apoptosis or via autophagy.

Key words: Panax notoginseng, cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury, bioinformatics, differentially expressed genes, rats, gene expression