Anti-prostate cancer mechanism of black ginseng during the "Nine Steaming and Nine Sun-Drying" process based on HPLC analysis combined with vector space network pharmacology

Abstract

Purpose The vector space network pharmacology method was established to investigate the anti-prostate cancer mechanism of black ginseng in the process of "nine steaming and nine sun-drying". Methods Six small-molecule organic acids, maltol, 5-HMF, 17 ginsenosides, 4 oligosaccharides, and 20 amino acids in black ginseng samples with different processing times were determined by HPLC analysis. Based on the content determination results, the differential ingredients in the processing of black ginseng were screened by multivariate statistical analysis. The core targets and pathways of the above ingredients against prostate cancer were obtained by network pharmacological methods. Finally, the entropy weight method was used to assign values to the above ingredients, targets, and pathways, and the vector space network pharmacology method was established to study the anti-prostate cancer mechanism of black ginseng in the process of "nine steaming and nine sun-drying". Results Based on principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), fructose, glucose, dencichin, glutamate, ginsenoside 20 (S)-Rg3, 20 (R)-Rg3, 20 (S)-Rh2, Rg1, Re, and Rc were the main differential ingredients in various steaming and sun-drying cycle periods of black ginseng. The results of vector space network pharmacology showed that the main reason for the change in the anti-prostate cancer pathway of black ginseng with the number of steaming and sun-drying was the different regulatory ability of black ginseng on the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and chemical carcinogenesis-receptor activation pathway. Conclusion The study found that the content of each ingredient in black ginseng changed with the number of steaming and sun-drying cycle periods. It also discovered the anti-prostate cancer pathway through vector space network pharmacology, which gave researchers a fresh perspective for exploring the anti-prostate cancer active components of black ginseng and the mechanism of the effect of traditional Chinese medicine in the process of drug processing.