A network pharmacology-based study on the anti-hepatoma effect of Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex

摘要

Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex(PCC)has been used for the treatment of human hepatocellular carcinoma,but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear.In this study,15 active compositions of PCC were obtained from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database(TCMSP),and 505 putative identified targets of PCC were screened by Swiss Target Prediction server.Next,HCC data was downloaded from Drugbank and GeneCards databases.Furtherly,45 common targets were revealed.The network diagrams of the active component-target network,protein-protein interaction(PPI)network and active component-target-pathway network were constructed using Cytoscape software.The analysis of the network results showed that the active ingredients of PCC,such as berberine,obacunone,rutaecarpine,candletoxin A,palmatine,isocorypalmine,quercetin,and(S)-Canadine,had a good binding activity with more targets.Additionally,Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)pathway enrichment analyses revealed that common targets were significantly enriched in Ras signaling pathway,ErbB signaling pathway,and Mammalian target of rapamycin(mTOR)signaling pathway.Altogether,the multi-component,multi-target,and multi-pathway characteristics of PCC provided a reference for the in-depth study of the mechanism of PCC in the treatment of HCC.