Regulatory mechanism of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi on bone cancer pain based on network pharmacology and experimental verification

Aitao Wang; Dongmei Guo; Hongyu Cheng; Hui Jiang; Xiaojuan Liu; Muer Tie

doi:10.7717/peerj.14394

Regulatory mechanism of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi on bone cancer pain based on network pharmacology and experimental verification

PeerJ. 2022 Nov 17:10:e14394. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14394. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Aitao Wang^#¹, Dongmei Guo^#¹, Hongyu Cheng², Hui Jiang³, Xiaojuan Liu¹, Muer Tie¹

Affiliations

¹ Inner Mongolia People's Hospital, Hohhot, China.
² Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China.
³ Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Context: Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (SBG) may relieve bone cancer pain (BCP) by regulating cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and apoptosis.

Objective: The mechanism of SBG in the treatment of BCP remains to be further explored.

Methods: The active compounds and targets of SBG were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) and SwissTargetPrediction databases. BCP-related targets were screened from NCBI and GeneCards databases. Additionally, Cytoscape software was applied to construct network diagrams, and OmicShare platform was used to enrich Gene Ontology (GO) and pathways. Finally, the verification of active compounds and core targets was performed based on quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).

Results: Interestingly, we identified baicalein and wogonin as the main active components of SBG. A total of 41 SBG targets, including VEGFA, IL6, MAPK3, JUN and TNF, were obtained in the treatment of BCP. In addition, pathways in cancer may be an essential way of SBG in the treatment of BCP. Experimental verification had shown that baicalein and wogonin were significantly related to BCP core targets.

Conclusions: The active components of SBG have been clarified, and the mechanism of the active components in treating BCP has been predicted and verified, which provides an experimental and theoretical basis for the in-depth elucidation of the pharmacodynamics material basis and mechanism of SBG.

Keywords: Bone cancer pain; Network pharmacology; Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi; Targets; qRT-PCR.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cancer Pain*
Medicine, Chinese Traditional
Neoplasms*
Network Pharmacology
Scutellaria baicalensis

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Science and Technology Plan Project (2019GG24). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.