Abstract:
OBJECTIVE To explore the material basis and underlying mechanism of Liujunzi decoction for gastric cancer(GC) treatment.
METHODS Active chemical ingredients in Liujunzi decoction were searched based on the TCMSP and TCM-MESH database, the ingredients related and GC related targets were screened from the SwissTargetPrediction, TTD, CTD, GeneCards database. The protein-protein interaction(PPI) network of the targets were performed to search out the core targets, subsequently, the ONCOMINE database were applied to analysis the expression of these core targets in GC. After then, the DAVID online tool was used to perform the gene ontology and KEGG pathway analysis for the targets. For the obtained active ingredient, acting on the target of gastric cancer and the enriched pathway, ingredients-targets-pathways network of Liujunzi decoction was constructed.
RESULTS The 21 active ingredients and 43 related targets for GC treatment were screened out from the Liujunzi decoction. PPI network analysis of the target obtained 6 core targets, and there were significant differences in expression between the gastric cancer samples and the normal samples in the ONCOMINE database. The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of the target showed that there were 74 entries in the biological process, 9 in the cellular component, 15 in the molecular function, and 78 in the enriched KEGG pathway. Involved tumors, signaling pathways, viral carcinogenesis, apoptosis, proteoglycans in cancer, and other pathways closely related to GC. Ingredients-targets-pathways network of Liujunzi decoction revealed the complex and closely interactions among the active ingredients, targets and pathways.
CONCLUSION The result of the study preliminarily verified the mechanisms of Liujunzi decoction for GC through multi-ingredients, multi-target and multi-pathway interactions, and lay foundation for further studies on the material basis and mechanism of action.