NATURAL PRODUCT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ›› 2021, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (6): 1020-1031. doi: 10.16333/j.1001-6880.2021.6.017

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Study on the mechanism of Astragalus Radix against liver cancer based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

YAO Hong,REN Jin-hong,HOU Yu-xin, WANG Yu-xuan,XUE Hui-qing*,LI Qing-shan*   

  1. Shanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,Shanxi Key Laboratory of Innovative Drugs for the Treatment of Serious Diseases Basing on the Chronic Inflammation,Taiyuan 030619,China

  • Online:2021-06-28 Published:2021-07-02

Abstract:

Based on network pharmacology and molecular docking to explore the active ingredients and molecular mechanism of Astragalus Radix anti-liver cancer.Acquire the active components of Astragalus Radix from TCMSP database,predict component targets by Swiss Target Prediction,use Genecards database and OMIM database to collect liver cancer targets,Venny phase maps Astragalus Radix anti-liver cancer targets,String database combined with Cytoscape 3.7.2 software to draw liver cancer targets the protein interaction network (PPI) and the "Astragalus Radix-component-pathway-liver cancer " interaction network,the DAVID database analyzes the function enrichment and pathway enrichment of core target genes.Surflex-Dock software verifies the molecular docking between key components of Astragalus Radix and core targets.MTT method was used to detect the effects of quercetin,calycosin,kaempferol, formononetin,isorhamnetin and jaranol on liver cancer cells (HepG2).The RT-qPCR method verified the relative levels of Jaranol on the expression of TP53,MAPK1,AKT1,IL6,MAPK8 and VEGFA genes.In this study,20 active components of Astragalus Radix were screened,involving 202 targets and 100 KEGG signal pathways,and GO analysis showed 487 biological functions.Network pharmacology analysis Astragalus Radix may play an anti-liver cancer effect through key targets such as TP53,MAPK1,AKT1, IL6,MAPK8 and VEGFA.Molecular docking shows that the target and the component have a certain degree of binding.MTT showed that Jaranol has a stronger inhibitory effect on liver cancer cells (HepG2) than the other five components.RT-qPCR verified that the expression levels of the six genes of Jaranol at different concentrations were all up-regulated,which was consistent with the genes involved in the KEGG pathway analysis.This study preliminarily explored the potential mechanism of Astragalus Radix with multiple targets and multiple pathways in the treatment of liver cancer,and provided a basis for subsequent verification of the molecular mechanism of Astragalus Radix against liver cancer.

Key words: network pharmacology, Astragalus Radix, liver cancer, mechanism MTT method, RT-qPCR method

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