Using network pharmacology approaches to identify treatment mechanisms for codonopsis in esophageal cancer.

OBJECTIVE

We explored codonopsis mechanisms for the treatment of esophageal cancer using a network pharmacology approach.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Using the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology website, codonopsis compounds and targets were gathered. After identifying esophageal cancer target intersections from the GeneCards website, possible codonopsis targets for esophageal cancer were screened. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network diagram of protein targets was then constructed using the STRING database. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed in R 3.6.0 software. A network diagram of "disease-drug-component-target-pathways" was also constructed using Cytoscape 3.7.1.

RESULTS

We screened 21 codonopsis compounds as possible esophageal cancer treatments and 31 drug-disease intersecting targets. GO enrichment analysis identified 778 biological process (BP) components, 15 cellular component (CC) components, and 50 molecular function (MF) components, and KEGG analyses identified 90 signaling pathways. Our analyses showed that p53 and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways (among others) were significant pathways in these processes.

CONCLUSIONS

Codonopsis may be used to treat esophageal cancer by multiple components, targets, and pathways.