Using omics approaches to dissect the therapeutic effects of Chinese herbal medicines on gastrointestinal cancers

Abstract

Chinese herbal medicines offer a rich source of anti-cancer drugs. Differences between the pharmacology of Chinese herbal medicines and modern synthetic chemicals hinder the development of drugs derived from herbal products. To address this challenge, novel omics approaches including transcriptomics, proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics have been applied to dissect the pharmacological benefits of Chinese herbal medicines in cancer treatments. Numerous Chinese herbal medicines have shown potential anti-tumor effects on different gastrointestinal (GI) cancers while eliminating the side effects associated with conventional cancer therapies. The present study aimed to provide an overview of recent research focusing on Chinese herbal medicines in GI cancer treatment, based on omics approaches. This review also illustrates the potential utility of omics approaches in herbal-derived drug discovery. Omics approaches can precisely and efficiently reveal the key molecular targets and intracellular interaction networks of Chinese herbal medicines in GI cancer treatment. This study summarizes the application of different omics-based approaches in investigating the effects and mechanisms of Chinese herbal medicines in GI cancers. Future research directions are also proposed for this area of study.

Study of active components and mechanisms mediating the hypolipidemic effect of Inonotus obliquus polysaccharides

“…Chinese herbal medicines have small toxic effects and reduce damage to the liver and kidneys. Therefore, it is widely used in the treatment of diseases (Li et al., 2022 ). In the treatment of hyperlipidemia, many herbal medicines (including herbal formulas, natural extracts, and pure bioactive compounds from medicinal plants) (Han et al., 2019 ; Lin et al., 2016 ; Park et al., 2019 ), such as red ginseng polysaccharides, Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides, curcumin, etc., have been proven to inhibit liver adipogenesis by reducing the expression of key transcription factors and lipogenic enzymes, thus regulating the disorder of lipid metabolism.…”