1. Academic Validation
  2. Centipeda minima active components and mechanisms in lung cancer

Centipeda minima active components and mechanisms in lung cancer

  • BMC Complement Med Ther. 2023 Mar 23;23(1):89. doi: 10.1186/s12906-023-03915-y.
Cuiyun Gao # 1 2 Huafeng Pan # 3 Fengjun Ma 4 Ze Zhang 2 Zedan Zhao 2 Jialing Song 2 Wei Li 5 Xiangzhen Fan 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong, China.
  • 2 School of Rehabilitation Medicine, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, Shandong, China.
  • 3 Science and Technology Innovation Center, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
  • 4 Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong, China.
  • 5 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong, China. yishengliwei@163.com.
  • 6 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong, China. 643355196@qq.com.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been extensively used for neoplasm treatment and has provided many promising therapeutic candidates. We previously found that Centipeda minima (C. minima), a Chinese medicinal herb, showed anti-cancer effects in lung Cancer. However, the active components and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we used network pharmacology to evaluate C. minima active compounds and molecular mechanisms in lung Cancer.

Methods: We screened the TCMSP database for bioactive compounds and their corresponding potential targets. Lung cancer-associated targets were collected from Genecards, OMIM, and Drugbank databases. We then established a drug-ingredients-gene symbols-disease (D-I-G-D) network and a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network using Cytoscape software, and we performed Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses using R software. To verify the network pharmacology results, we then performed survival analysis, molecular docking analysis, as well as in vitro and in vivo experiments.

Results: We identified a total of 21 C. minima bioactive compounds and 179 corresponding targets. We screened 804 targets related to lung Cancer, 60 of which overlapped with C. minima. The top three candidate ingredients identified by D-I-G-D network analysis were quercetin, nobiletin, and beta-sitosterol. PPI network and core target analyses suggested that TP53, Akt1, and MYC are potential therapeutic targets. Moreover, molecular docking analysis confirmed that quercetin, nobiletin, and beta-sitosterol, combined well with TP53, Akt1, and MYC respectively. In vitro experiments verified that quercetin induced non-small cell lung Cancer (NSCLC) cell death in a dose-dependent manner. GO and KEGG analyses found 1771 enriched GO terms and 144 enriched KEGG pathways, including a variety of Cancer related pathways, the IL-17 signaling pathway, the platinum drug resistance pathway, and Apoptosis pathways. Our in vivo experimental results confirmed that a C. minima ethanol extract (ECM) enhanced cisplatin (CDDP) induced cell Apoptosis in NSCLC xenografts.

Conclusions: This study revealed the key C. minima active ingredients and molecular mechanisms in the treatment of lung Cancer, providing a molecular basis for further C. minima therapeutic investigation.

Keywords

Centipeda minima; Experimental validation; Lung cancer; Molecular docking; Molecular mechanism; Network pharmacology.

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