Network Pharmacology Analysis and Experimental Pharmacology Study Explore the Mechanism of Gambogic Acid against Endometrial Cancer

Zhengxiang Xia; Zhongyan Tang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c00696

Network Pharmacology Analysis and Experimental Pharmacology Study Explore the Mechanism of Gambogic Acid against Endometrial Cancer

ACS Omega. 2021 Apr 14;6(16):10944-10952. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c00696. eCollection 2021 Apr 27.

Authors

Zhengxiang Xia¹, Zhongyan Tang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Tooth Restoration and Regeneration, Tongji University, 399 Middle Yan Chang Road, Shanghai 200072, China.
² Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Jin Shan Hospital, Fudan University, 1508 Longhan Road, Shanghai 201508, China.

Abstract

Endometrial cancer (EC) is one of the three most common gynecological cancers in female groups. Gambogic acid (GA), a natural caged xanthone, exerts significantly antitumor effects on many cancers. However, its efficacy on EC and pharmacological mechanism of action remain marginal up to now. This study suggested that GA had significant inhibitory effects on EC in vitro and in vivo, and no toxicity to normal cells or mice. In detail, GA suppressed cell proliferation, induced cell apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest at G₀/G₁ stage, complied with the network pharmacology analysis, showed that the PI3K/Akt pathways were the most important signaling, and their protein and mRNA expression levels were confirmed by qRT-PCR and Western blot experiments. In all, our study first proved that GA could inhibit cell proliferation, induce cell apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest at G₀/G₁ stage via the PI3K/Akt pathways, so GA would be a good therapy for EC.