Anticancer targets and mechanisms of calycosin to treat nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Calycosin is a naturally occurring phytoestrogen, and it has the anti‐nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) action played by calycosin. However, the elaborate mechanisms of calycosin treating NPC remain to be unrevealed. In current report, a promising tool of network pharmacology method was used to uncover the anti‐NPC targets and therapeutic mechanisms played by calycosin. Furthermore, were conducted to validate the bioinformatic findings in human and preclinical studies. As results, the bioinformatic findings showed the core anti‐NPC targets played by calycosin included tumor protein p53 (TP53), mitogen‐activated protein kinase 14 (MAPK14), caspase 8 (CASP8), mitogen‐activated protein kinase 3 (MAPK3), caspase 3 (CASP3), receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1), proto‐oncogene c (JUN), and estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1). Concurrently, the top 20 biological processes and top 20 pharmacological pathways of calycosin treating NPC were identified and illustrated. In clinical data, NPC samples showed up‐regulated expression of MAPK14, reduced TP53, and CASP8 expressions in comparison with those in non‐NPC controls. As revealed in experimental data, calycosin‐treated NPC cells resulted in reduced cell survival rate, increased cell apoptosis. In apoptosis‐specific staining, calycosin‐treated NPC cells exhibited elevated apoptotic cell number. Following the immunostaining assays, the results indicated increased TP53‐, CASP8‐positive cells, and reduced MAPK14‐positive cells in calycosin‐treated NPC cells and xenograft tumor sections. Altogether, the bioinformatic findings from network pharmacology reveal all core targets and mechanisms of calycosin treating NPC, and some of bioinformatic findings are identified using human and preclinical experiments. Notably, the screened biotargets may be potentially used to clinically treat NPC.

Medical Significance of Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2 and Pharmacological Characteristics of Plumbagin

“…We applied the NetworkAnalyzer in Cytoscape_v3.7.1 to analyze the topological parameters, such as the median and maximum degrees of freedom in the network. All core targets were screened according to degree value, and the upper limit of the filtering range was the maximum degree value in the topology data, whereas the lower limit was the median degree of freedom ( 29 ).…”

Bioinformatics and experimental findings reveal the therapeutic actions and targets of pachymic acid against cystitis glandularis

“…After washing with phosphate buffer saline buffer, Alexa Fluor 488‐labeled IgG (H + L) (Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China) was used as secondary antibody to incubate with the sections before the nucleolus was stained with diamidino‐2‐phenylindole solution (Beyotime Biotechnology). The positive cells were identified and determined through the approach as previously described 26,27 …”

Unveiling the potential anti‐cancer activity of calycosin against multivarious cancers with molecular insights: A promising frontier in cancer research

“…92,93 The pharmaceutical drugs to manage NPC are inadequate, especially for patients with advanced condition. 69,94 A recent investigation in vitro study demonstrates that calycosin effectively inhibits the proliferation of NPC cells by altering the expression of the lncRNA Ewing sarcoma-associated transcript 1 in Ewing sarcoma cells. 95 Treating NPC cells with calycosin (20-50 μM) showed a decreased expression of ESWAT1, p-TAK1, p-IкB, and p-c-Jun and suppression of NPC cells by mediating downstream effectors TRAF6 and TAK-1.…”

“…92 Calycosin increases tp53 and caspase 8 levels and decreases MAPK14 expression in a dose-dependent way resulting in the apoptosis of NPC cells and halting proliferation and the growth of tumor cells. 94 Taken together, calycosin may operate as a potential anti-cancer agent by encouraging apoptosis and preventing the proliferation and development of NPC cells by targeting intracellular molecules. 6.2.11 | Ovarian cancer (OC) Ovarian cancer is a kind of cancer that begins in the ovaries.…”