Mechanism of Astragali Radix-Curcumae Rhizoma in treating gastric cancer based on network pharmacology and experimental verification / 中国中药杂志

This study aims to investigate the mechanism of Astragali Radix-Curcumae Rhizoma(HQEZ) in the treatment of gastric cancer based on network pharmacology. Further, the SGC7901 cell model of gastric cancer was employed to validate the efficacy and key targets of the herb pair. Firstly, the CCK-8 assay was employed to evaluate the direct effect of HQEZ on the proliferation of gastric cancer SGC7901 cells. Then, network pharmacology methods were employed to investigate the active ingredients, key targets, and key signaling pathways involved in the treatment of gastric cancer with HQEZ. The results showed that HQEZ contained 18 potential active ingredients, such as quercetin, naringenin, and curcumin. The results of gene ontology(GO) functional annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) pathway enrichment suggested that the main targets of HQEZ in treating gastric cancer were involved in the regulation of protein serine/threonine kinase activity, activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK) activity, cysteine-type endopeptidase activity, and negative regulation of protein serine/threonine kinase activity. The hypoxia-inducible factor-1(HIF-1) signaling pathway, ATP-binding cassette(ABC) transporters, cytochrome P450-mediated metabolism of xenobiotics, p53 signaling pathway, and cell apoptosis were key signaling pathways of HQEZ in treating gastric cancer. The cell experiments demonstrated that HQEZ significantly downregulated the expression of ATP-binding cassette subfamily B member 1(ABCB1), epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR), phosphorylated serine/threonine kinase(p-AKT), hypoxia inducible factor 1 subunit alpha(HIF1A), B-cell lymphoma 2(BCL2), breast cancer susceptibility protein 1(BRCA1), DNA polymerase theta(POLH), ribonucleotide reductase M1(RRM1), and excision repair cross-complementation group 1(ERCC1), and upregulated the expression of tumor protein P53(TP53) and cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinase(CAPS3). Finally, a multivariate COX regression model was adopted to study the relationship between gene expression and clinical information data of gastric cancer patients in the TCGA database, which demonstrated that the key targets of HQEZ were associated with the poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients. Further feature selection using the LASSO algorithm showed that EGFR, HIF1A, TP53, POLH, RRM1, and ERCC1 were closely associated with the survival of gastric can-cer patients. In conclusion, HQEZ regulates the expression of genes involved in DNA repair, survival, and apoptosis in gastric cancer cells via multiple targets and pathways, assisting the treatment of gastric cancer.

Anti-colorectal Cancer Molecular Mechanism of Astragali Radix and Curcumae Rhizoma Based on Network Pharmacology / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective:The network pharmacology method was used to predict targets and signaling pathways of the drug pair Astragali Radix and Curcumae Rhizoma in treating colorectal cancer,in order to analyze the effective material basis and action mechanism. Method:Disease targets for colorectal cancer were collected through Therapetutic Target Database(TTD)and Drugbank database. Components of Astragali Radix and Curcumae Rhizoma were obtained from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database, and the Analysis Platform (TCMSP). ChemMapper and PharmMapper database were used to predict the disease targets of effective components. The "compound-disease targets" network model was established by Cytoscape software. The function analysis of gene ontology(GO)and the enrichment analysis of Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes(KEGG)were carried out with ClueGO plug-in. Result:The network contained 56 compounds and 54 targets. The crucial targets included 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase catalytic subunit alpha1(PRKAA1), prostaglandin G/H synthase 1(PTGS1), prostaglandin G/H synthase 2(PTGS2), Thymidylate synthase(TYMS), Carboxylesterase 1(CES1), vascular endothelial growth factor B(VEGFB), vascular endothelial growth factor A(VEGFA), glutathione S-transferase P(GSTP1), and serine hydroxymethyltransferase 1(glyA). Function about target genes inclined to peptide-tyrosine phosphorylation, extracellular regulated protein kinase(ERK)1 and ERK2 signal series, negative regulation of endothelial cell apoptosis process, et al. Important KEGG Pathways involved pathways in cancer, Ras signaling pathways, Rap1 signaling pathways, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathways. Conclusion:The anti-colorectal cancer activities of Astragali Radix and Curcumae Rhizoma were mainly affected by inhibiting cell proliferation and differentiation, promoting tumor cell apoptosis, resisting tumor angiogenesis, and enhancing immunity as phenotype intervention mode in network. The active signaling pathway is most related to Ras signaling pathway, Rap1 signaling pathway and PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Screen astragalosides from Huangqi injections by LC-TOF-MS-based mass defect filtering approach / 中国中药杂志

The samples of Huangqi injection (HI) were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOF-MS), and both positive and negative ion modes were employed to obtain the LC-TOF-MS analysis information of chemical compounds in HI. Then the mass defect filtering (MDF) approach, which was developed based on the previously published articles, was utilized to rapidly screen the astragalosides from the obtained LC-TOF-MS data. Each screened astragaloside was confirmed by the presence of no less than 2 quasi-molecular ions. All the screened astragalosides were then tentatively assigned according to the parent ion and daughter ion information. Finally, a total of 62 astragalosides were screened and characterized from the HI samples, including 15 new detected ones. The identification results indicated that acetylation, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, methoxylation and hydration might be the major conversion reactions involved in the formation of the astragalosides. The LC-TOF-MS-based MDF approach was proved to be a feasible and efficient tool to screen the chemical constituents in complex matrices such as herbal medicines.

Rationality analysis of clinical application of Danhong injection in affiliated hospital of Nanjing university of Chinese medicine from 2013 to 2014 / 中国中药杂志

It is necessary to investigate the influence of the rationality of clinical drug use on the benefit and risk factors of traditional Chinese medicine injections. The retrospective survey was based on the medical records and information of 4 950 patients who used Danhong injection in the HIS database of the first affiliated hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine from 2013 to 2014. The basic statistical methods and associated rules analysis were utilized to analyze the HIS information of these patients, including the basic information, the diagnosis, the department, the dosage, the usage of medication, the drug combination and the adverse reactions. And the rationality analysis of the clinical application of Danhong injection was carried out to investigate relevant factors of the adverse reactions. The results showed that most cases came from the department of cardiology (51.95%) and encephalopathy center (20.67%). In the statistical period, the patients aged above 40 years old accounted for 96.65%. And the two western medicine diagnosis items with the highest confidence level were coronary heart disease and angina pectoris (97.15%), while the three items were coronary heart disease, angina pectoris and hypertension (97.02%). The irrational indications were mainly hypertension (12.93%) and diabetes (4.55%). All of them were diagnosed as blood stasis syndrome by the traditional Chinese medicine. About 98.93% of the single dosage was within the range stipulated on package insert, the duration mainly ranged between 1 and 21 days, and 97.64% of the menstrua contained 0.9% NS and 5% GS. According to the medication records,99.26% were the use of combined drugs, with 8.41 drugs on average. Antiplatelet drugs (72.04%) were the most frequently combined with western medicine, followed by the cholesterol-regulating drugs (64.86%) and the cerebrovascular drugs (60.26%). When used in the combination with antibiotics for the infection, cephalosporin antibiotics were the most frequently applied (8.81%). When used with traditional Chinese medicines, traditional Chinese medicines for activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis or monomer traditional Chinese medicine injections (28.93%) were the dominance, in which Gastrodin injection was the most frequently applied (16.23%). And 12 cases of adverse reactions were reported, with the ADR rate of 0.24%. The indications, solvent compatibility and irrational drug combination may be the potential risk factors for ADRs induced by Danhong injection. Further experiments are required to evaluate the benefits and risks in these three aspects.