Network pharmacology-based analysis on the anti-hepatocellular carcinoma effect of Curcumae Radix

Abstract

Abstract: As a traditional Chinese medicine, Curcumae Radix (CR) has exhibited anti-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) activity. However, the underlying molecular mechanism is still unclear. In the present study, network pharmacology was utilized to reveal the mechanism of the effects of CR in HCC. The analysis of the network results showed that the active components of CR, including curcumin, naringenin, sitosterol, demethoxycurcumin, and β-elemene, were closely related to the screened hub-targets, such as AKT1, TP53, MAPK8, MAPK1, JUN, STAT3, VEGFA, MAPK3, IL6, TNF, CCND1, EP300, EGFR, and ESR1. GO and KEGG analyses revealed that these targets were associated with pathways in cancer, proteoglycans in cancer, PI3K-Akt signaling

pathway, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, MAPK signaling pathway, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and other biological processes. The candidate active components of CR (curcumin and naringenin) prominently exhibited their antitumor effects by regulating PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. This study successfully predicted, explained, and confirmed the multi-component, multi-target, and multi-channel characteristics of CR, which not only gave novel insights into the pharmacological and biological molecular mechanism of CR applying to HCC disease, but also provided a feasible method for discovering potential activated compounds from Chinese herbs.

Key words: Curcumae Radix, hepatocellular carcinoma, network pharmacology, Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)

Shuyan Qin, Guodong Yao. Network pharmacology-based analysis on the anti-hepatocellular carcinoma effect of Curcumae Radix[J]. Asian Journal of Traditional Medicines, 2022, 17(1): 9-24.

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