Li YJ, Tang DX, Yan HT, Yang B, Yang Z, Long FX. Network pharmacology and molecular docking-based analyses to predict the potential mechanism of Huangqin decoction in treating colorectal cancer. World J Clin Cases 2023; 11(19): 4553-4566 [PMID: 37469733 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i19.4553]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dong-Xin Tang, MD, Doctor, Digestive Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 71 Baoshan North Road, Nanming District, Guiyang 550001, Guizhou Province, China. tangdongxin@sina.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Ying-Jie Li, Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guiyang 550005, Guizhou Province, China
Dong-Xin Tang, Bing Yang, Digestive Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guiyang 550001, Guizhou Province, China
Hong-Ting Yan, Zhu Yang, Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guiyang 550001, Guizhou Province, China
Feng-Xi Long, Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Gui Yang 550001, Guizhou Province, China
Author contributions: Li YJ and Tang DX contributed equally to this work; Yan HT designed the study; Yang B contributed to the analysis of the manuscript; Yang Z and Long FX were involved in the data acquisition and writing of this article; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported byNational Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82260957; No. 82274610; No. 81860819; No. 81860819; and No. 81960818; Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Program (Qian Kehe Foundation-ZK[2022] General 498, Qian Kehe Foundation-ZK [2022] General 487, Qian Kehe Support [2021] General 095, Qian Kehe Platform Talent [2020]5013); National Key R&D Program Project (2019YFC1712504); Guizhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Tumor Inheritance and Science and Technology Innovation Talent Base (No. Deaf leader-[2018] No. 3); Guizhou high-level innovative talent training plan (100 levels) (No. Qian Kehe Talents [2016] No. 4032); Yang Zhu, Guizhou Province, “Traditional Chinese Medicine Oncology” Graduate Tutor Studio (No. Teaching and research GZS-[2016]08).
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guiyang, Guizhou, China, Institutional Review Board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Dong-Xin Tang, MD, Doctor, Digestive Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 71 Baoshan North Road, Nanming District, Guiyang 550001, Guizhou Province, China. tangdongxin@sina.com
Received: April 24, 2023 Peer-review started: April 24, 2023 First decision: May 8, 2023 Revised: May 27, 2023 Accepted: June 13, 2023 Article in press: June 13, 2023 Published online: July 6, 2023 Processing time: 67 Days and 4.8 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer death in recent years. CRC is a danger to human health.
Research motivation
The side effects caused by radiotherapy severely hinder the treatment progress of CRC patients. Huangqin decoction (HQD) can improve the immunity of CRC patients and enhance their quality of life.
Research objectives
This study exploited network pharmacology and molecular docking to uncover the potential targets and mechanisms of HQD for CRC treatment. It also provided a molecular biological basis for CRC treatment with HQD in a clinical setting.
Research methods
This study involved preliminary exploration of the potential targets and mechanisms of HQD for CRC treatment by using network pharmacology and molecular docking.
Research results
The active ingredients betulin, tetrahydropalmatine, and quercetin in HQD may act on targets such as Jun proto-oncogene, AP-1 transcription factor subunit, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, tumor protein p53, vascular endothelial growth factor, and AKT serine/threonine kinase 1, which in turn regulate HIF-1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways in CRC treatment.
Research conclusions
HQD could treat CRC by regulating HIF-1 and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways.
Research perspectives
At present, many shortcomings still exist in studying the action mechanisms of herbal medicine for various diseases on the basis of network pharmacology. Future research should be focused on in vivo and in vitro experiments to verify the key targets and type pathways and then combined proteomics and metabolomics to more systematically elucidate the action mechanism of HQD in CRC treatment.
