Network pharmacology-based and clinically relevant prediction of the active ingredients and potential targets of Chinese herbs in metastatic breast cancer patients

Abstract

Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) plays a significant role in breast cancer treatment. We conduct the study to ascertain the relative molecular targets of effective Chinese herbs in treating stage IV breast cancer.Survival benefit of CHM was verified by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis. A bivariate correlation analysis was used to find and establish the effect of herbs in complex CHM formulas. A network pharmacological approach was adopted to explore the potential mechanisms of CHM.Patients in the CHM group had a median survival time of 55 months, which was longer than the 23 months of patients in the non-CHM group. Cox regression analysis indicated that CHM was an independent protective factor. Correlation analysis showed that 10 herbs were strongly correlated with favorable survival outcomes (P<0.01). Bioinformatics analyses suggested that the 10 herbs might achieve anti-breast cancer activity primarily through inhibiting HSP90, ERα and TOP-II related pathways.

Chemopreventive and Therapeutic Efficacy of Cinnamomum zeylanicum L. Bark in Experimental Breast Carcinoma: Mechanistic In Vivo and In Vitro Analyses

“…In addition, the tumor-suppressive potential of plant bioactive molecules also includes intensively discussed targeting of the aberrant epigenetic modifications particularly on the level of the global DNA hypomethylation status of the cells, hypermethylation of tumor suppressor gene promoters, histone post-translational modifications, and non-coding RNA (ncRNA)-linked multi-gene network modulations [10][11][12][13]. However, regarding clinical research, only a relatively limited number of epidemiological studies and meta-analyses have documented that regular (4-5 times a week) and long-term (several years) consumption of selected whole plant foods (not isolated molecules) is significantly associated with a decrease in cancer risk, including breast carcinoma (BC) [14][15][16][17].…”

Comparative efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal injections combined with the FOLFOX regimen for treating gastric cancer in China: a network meta-analysis

“…Recently, TCM served as important parts of complementary and alternative medicine to provide a theoretical and practical approach to the treatment of gastric cancer combined with other conventional cancer therapies. And TCM was confirmed that it could not only improve the clinical symptoms, immune functions and performance status of cancer patients, but also prolong their survival period [ 109 – 110 ]. Moreover, Kangai injection was made from ginseng, Astragalus, Sophora flavescens, and its functions were replenishing Qi and strengthening the body resistance owing to its active components, namely Astragalus saponins, ginsenoside, and matrine.…”

Identification of Steroidogenic Components Derived From Gardenia jasminoides Ellis Potentially Useful for Treating Postmenopausal Syndrome

“…Subsequently, TCMSP database was used to screen the compounds based on DL (drug-likeness) values. Only ingredients with a DL value higher than 0.18 can be retained as candidate compounds (Xiang et al, 2016 ; Mao et al, 2017 ). For the identification of GJE associated proteins and genes, STITCH (“search tool for interactions of chemicals”) database 4.0 ( http://stitch.embl.de/ ) was used to explore the compound-protein interactions of GJE.…”