Open AccessPredictive Study of the Active Ingredients and Potential Targets of Codonopsis pilosula for the Treatment of Osteosarcoma via Network Pharmacology
Author(s) -
Gong Yang,
Shaojie Fu,
Zheng-Ren Wei,
Jianguo Liu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.552
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1741-4288
pISSN - 1741-427X
DOI - 10.1155/2021/1480925
Subject(s) - kegg , osteosarcoma , systems pharmacology , pharmacology , identification (biology) , computational biology , gene , biology , drug , cancer research , medicine , traditional medicine , gene ontology , gene expression , genetics , botany
Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common type of primary bone tumor in children and adults. Dangshen ( Codonopsis pilosula ) is a traditional Chinese medicine commonly used in the treatment of OS worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms of Dangshen in OS remain unclear. Hence, in this study, we aimed to systematically explore the underlying mechanisms of Dangshen in the treatment of OS. Our study adopted a network pharmacology approach, focusing on the identification of active ingredients, drug target prediction, gene collection, gene ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment, and other network tools. The network analysis identified 15 active compounds in Dangshen that were linked to 48 possible therapeutic targets related to OS. The results of the gene enrichment analysis show that Dangshen produces a therapeutic effect in OS likely by regulating multiple pathways associated with DNA damage, cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and migration. Based on the network pharmacology approach, we successfully predicted the active compounds and their respective targets. In addition, we illustrated the molecular mechanisms that mediate the therapeutic effect of Dangshen in OS. These findings may aid in the development of novel targeted therapies for OS in the future.