School of Biological and Food Engineering, Suzhou University, Anhui, 234000, China.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2024 Jul 11;24(1):263. doi: 10.1186/s12906-024-04574-3.
Lung cancer is a malignant tumor with highly heterogeneous characteristics. A classic Chinese medicine, Pinellia ternata (PT), was shown to exert therapeutic effects on lung cancer cells. However, its chemical and pharmacological profiles are not yet understood. In the present study, we aimed to reveal the mechanism of PT in treating lung cancer cells through metabolomics and network pharmacology. Metabolomic analysis of two strains of lung cancer cells treated with Pinellia ternata extracts (PTE) was used to identify differentially abundant metabolites, and the metabolic pathways associated with the DEGs were identified by MetaboAnalyst. Then, network pharmacology was applied to identify potential targets against PTE-induced lung cancer cells. The integrated network of metabolomics and network pharmacology was constructed based on Cytoscape. PTE obviously inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of A549 and NCI-H460 cells. The results of the cellular metabolomics analysis showed that 30 metabolites were differentially expressed in the lung cancer cells of the experimental and control groups. Through pathway enrichment analysis, 5 metabolites were found to be involved in purine metabolism, riboflavin metabolism and the pentose phosphate pathway, including D-ribose 5-phosphate, xanthosine, 5-amino-4-imidazolecarboxyamide, flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). Combined with network pharmacology, 11 bioactive compounds were found in PT, and networks of bioactive compound-target gene-metabolic enzyme-metabolite interactions were constructed. In conclusion, this study revealed the complicated mechanisms of PT against lung cancer. Our work provides a novel paradigm for identifying the potential mechanisms underlying the pharmacological effects of natural compounds.
肺癌是一种具有高度异质性特征的恶性肿瘤。一种经典的中药半夏(PT)被证明对肺癌细胞具有治疗作用。然而,其化学和药理学特征尚不清楚。在本研究中,我们旨在通过代谢组学和网络药理学揭示 PT 治疗肺癌细胞的机制。使用半夏提取物(PTE)处理的两种肺癌细胞的代谢组学分析用于鉴定差异丰度代谢物,并用 MetaboAnalyst 鉴定与 DEGs 相关的代谢途径。然后,应用网络药理学鉴定潜在的 PTE 诱导肺癌细胞靶点。基于 Cytoscape 构建代谢组学和网络药理学的综合网络。PTE 明显抑制 A549 和 NCI-H460 细胞的增殖、迁移和侵袭。细胞代谢组学分析的结果表明,实验组和对照组肺癌细胞中有 30 种代谢物差异表达。通过通路富集分析,发现 5 种代谢物参与嘌呤代谢、核黄素代谢和戊糖磷酸途径,包括 D-核糖 5-磷酸、黄苷、5-氨基-4-咪唑甲酰胺、黄素单核苷酸(FMN)和黄素腺嘌呤二核苷酸(FAD)。结合网络药理学,在 PT 中发现了 11 种生物活性化合物,并构建了生物活性化合物-靶基因-代谢酶-代谢物相互作用网络。总之,本研究揭示了 PT 对抗肺癌的复杂机制。我们的工作为识别天然化合物药理作用的潜在机制提供了一种新的范例。