Activity of Lycii fructus against Colorectal Cancer Based on Network Pharmacology and in Vitro Experiments

Abstract

Objective: To study the activity and the molecular mechanism of the active ingredients from Lycii fructus against colorectal cancer based on network pharmacology and in vitro experiments. Me-thods: The active components and corresponding targets of Lycii fructus were predicted by TCMSP; screening colorectal cancer related targets by TTD database, Gene Card database, and DisGeNET database; the common targets of Lycii fructus and colorectal cancer were obtained using Venny2.1 online tool, and PPI (Protein-Protein Interaction) networks analysis was conducted using STRING database; Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and KEGG pathway enrichment were analyzed by Me-tascape website; MTT assay was used to examine the anticancer activity of the extract from Lycii fructus against colorectal cancer. Results: 35 active ingredients of Lycii fructus were predicted, with 121 potential anti-cancer targets identified. The 5 most promising targets based on PPI analysis were TP53, HSP90AA1, AKT1, MAPK1, and RELA. KEGG enrichment showed that the active ingredients from Lycii fructus mainly functioned via PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, and relaxin signaling pathway. MTT assay was used to examine the effect of the extract from Lycii fructus on the colorectal cancer cell viability and its antioxidant activity. Conclusion: Based on the network pharmacology and in vitro experiments, the possible antitumor targets of the active ingredients from Lycii fructus were screened and their antitumor activity was verified in vitro , providing a reference for the further study of the anticancer mechanism of Lycii fructus .