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Data Mining and Systems Pharmacology to Elucidate Effectiveness and Mechanisms of Chinese Medicine in Treating Primary Liver Cancer

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Abstract

Objective

To identify specific Chinese medicines (CM) that may benefit patients with primary liver cancer (PLC), and to explore the mechanism of action of these medicines.

Methods

In this retrospective, singlecenter study, prescription information from PLC patients was used in combination with Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Supports System to identify the specific core drugs. A system pharmacology approach was employed to explore the mechanism of action of these medicines.

Results

Taking CM more than 6 months was significantly associated with improved survival outcomes. In total, 77 putative targets and 116 bioactive ingredients of the core drugs were identified and included in the analysis (P<0.05). A total of 1,036 gene ontology terms were found to be enriched in PLC. A total of 75 pathways identified from Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes were also enriched in this disease, including fluid shear stress, interleukin-17 signaling, signaling between advanced glycan end products and their receptors, cellular senescence, tumor necrosis factor signaling, p53 signaling, cell cycle signaling, steroid hormone biosynthesis, T-helper 17 cell differentiation, and metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome. Docking studies suggested that the ingredients in the core drugs exert therapeutic effects in PLC by modulating c-Jun and interleukin-6.

Conclusions

Receiving CM for 6 months or more improves survival for the patients with PLC. The core drugs that really benefit for PLC patients likely regulates the tumor microenvironment and tumor itself.

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Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the study are not publicly available to protect subject confidentiality but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the participating researchers and our study staff.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, College of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, 410208, China

    Zhen Zhang &  Xue-fei Tian

  2. Hunan Key Laboratory of TCM Prescription and Syndromes Translational Medicine, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, 410208, China

    Zhen Zhang, Wen-hui Gao &  Xue-fei Tian

  3. Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen People’s Hospital (the Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; the First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 518020, China

    Jun-wei Li

  4. Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changsha, 410006, China

    Pu-hua Zeng

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Contributions

Zhang Z and Zeng PH contributed to the conception of this manuscript and wrote the draft; Tian XF contributed to this manuscript revision, the data collection and funding; Gao WH and Li JW helped with revision; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xue-fei Tian.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82074450), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2020JJ4066), Postgraduate Innovation Project of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine in 2020 (No. 2020CX14), “YIFANG” Postgraduate Innovation Project of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine (No. 2020YF04)

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Data Mining and Systems Pharmacology to Elucidate Effectiveness and Mechanisms of Chinese Medicines in Treating Primary Liver Cancer

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Zhang, Z., Li, Jw., Zeng, Ph. et al. Data Mining and Systems Pharmacology to Elucidate Effectiveness and Mechanisms of Chinese Medicine in Treating Primary Liver Cancer. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 28, 636–643 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-021-3449-8

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