Network Pharmacology-Based Analysis of the Potential Biological Mechanisms of Coix Seed against Colorectal Cancer

Yi Sun; Peishi Jiang; Hongjie Yang; Zhichun Zhang; Yuanda Zhou; Peng Li; Qingsheng Zeng; Xipeng Zhang

doi:10.1155/2022/9261768

Network Pharmacology-Based Analysis of the Potential Biological Mechanisms of Coix Seed against Colorectal Cancer

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022 Oct 6:2022:9261768. doi: 10.1155/2022/9261768. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yi Sun¹, Peishi Jiang¹, Hongjie Yang¹, Zhichun Zhang¹, Yuanda Zhou¹, Peng Li¹, Qingsheng Zeng¹, Xipeng Zhang¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Colorectal Surgery, Tianjin Union Medical Center, Tianjin 300121, China.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the potential biological mechanisms of coix seed in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) based on network pharmacology analysis.

Methods: The active components of coix seed and their potential action targets were retrieved from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP). The disease targets related to CRC were obtained from the DisGeNET database. The intersection targets of the drug targets and disease targets were selected, and a component-target-disease network was built using Cytoscape 3.8.0 tool. A global network of the core target protein interactions was constructed using String database. Biological function analysis and pathway enrichment analysis of core targets were conducted to explore the potential.

Results: A total of nine active components were obtained from the TCMSP database corresponding to 37 targets. Further analysis showed that 18 overlapping targets were associated with CRC. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis was conducted based on the 18 targets and 11 significantly enriched signaling pathways implicated in CRC were identified.

Conclusion: The multicomponent and multitarget characteristics of coix seed are preliminarily verified, and the potential biological mechanisms of coix seed in the treatment of CRC are predicted, which provides a theoretical basis for the experimental research.