Study on the Action Mechanism of the Yifei Jianpi Tongfu Formula in Treatment of Colorectal Cancer Lung Metastasis Based on Network Analysis, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Validation

Wanli Zhu; Rundong Zhang; Chenchao Ma; Yangyang Hu; Xuan Shi; Xiyu Wang; Xing Wu; Kaixing Ai

doi:10.1155/2022/6229444

Study on the Action Mechanism of the Yifei Jianpi Tongfu Formula in Treatment of Colorectal Cancer Lung Metastasis Based on Network Analysis, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Validation

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022 Jul 30:2022:6229444. doi: 10.1155/2022/6229444. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Wanli Zhu¹, Rundong Zhang¹, Chenchao Ma², Yangyang Hu¹, Xuan Shi³, Xiyu Wang⁴, Xing Wu⁵, Kaixing Ai¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200433, China.
² Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200433, China.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200433, China.
⁴ Department of Oncology, Hospital of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine of Baoshan District, Shanghai 201999, China.
⁵ Department of Cardiovasology, Jingan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200072, China.

Abstract

Objective: The lung is the second most common site of colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis. This study aims to investigate the therapeutic effects and potential action mechanisms of Yifei Jianpi Tongfu formula (YJTF) in CRC lung metastasis in a comprehensive and systematic way by network analysis, molecular docking, and experimental verification.

Methods: The main ingredients in YJTF were screened from the Traditional Chinese Medicine System Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) and Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Database (TCMID), and the disease-related targets from the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) and GeneCards and the compound-related targets from SwissTargetPrediction were collected. Then, Metascape was used for pathway annotation and enrichment analysis, and meanwhile, a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed. Molecular docking was carried out to investigate interactions between the active compounds and the potential targets. The in vivo effect of YJTF on CRC lung metastasis was observed in a tail vein injection mouse model.

Results: A total of 243 active compounds and 81 disease-related targets of YJTF were selected for analysis. The results of multiple network analysis showed that the core targets of YJTF were enriched onto various cancer-related pathways, especially focal adhesion and adherens junction. The results of molecular docking demonstrated that all core compounds (quercetin, kaempferol, luteolin, apigenin, and isorhamnetin) were capable of binding with AKT1, EGFR, SRC, ESR1, and PTGS2. Experimental validation in vivo demonstrated that YJTF combined with oxaliplatin could significantly reduce the number of lung metastases and improve the quality of life in mice. Further research suggested that YJTF inhibited CRC lung metastasis probably by modulating epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT).

Conclusions: According to the analysis, YJTF can be considered as an effective adjuvant therapy for CRC lung metastasis.