Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 24 pp 26003—26021

Network pharmacology reveals the potential mechanism of Baiying Qinghou decoction in treating laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Kun Gao1,2, , Yanan Zhu3, , Hui Wang4, , Xianwei Gong5, , Zhiyong Yue1,2, , Aiai Lv3, , Xuanchen Zhou1,2, ,

  • 1 Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
  • 2 Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
  • 3 Department of Internal Medicine, Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan 250013, Shandong, China
  • 4 Department of Ultrasound, The Fifth People’s Hospital of Jinan, Jinan 250022, Shandong, China
  • 5 Department of Pharmacy, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China

Received: June 24, 2021       Accepted: November 22, 2021       Published: December 20, 2021      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203786
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2021 Gao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Context: Baiying Qinghou as a traditional Chinese medicine decoction shows anticancer property on laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. However, little is known about the precise mechanism of Baiying Qinghou detection against laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: This study was aimed to explore potential mechanism of therapeutic actions of Baiying Qinghou decoction on laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Materials and Methods: The active chemical components of Baiying Qinghou decoction were predicted, followed by integrated analysis of network pharmacology and molecular docking approach. The network pharmacology approach included target protein prediction, protein-protein interaction network construction and functional enrichment analysis.

Results: Sitosterol and quercetin were predicted to be the overlapped active ingredients among three Chinese herbs of Baiying Qinghou decoction. The target proteins were closely associated with response to chemical, response to drug related biological process and cancer related pathways such as PI3K-Akt signaling, HIF-1 signaling and Estrogen signaling pathway. The target proteins of TP53, EGFR, PTGS2, NOS3 and IL1B as the key nodes in PPI network were cross-validated, among which EGFR, IL1B, NOS3 and TP53 were significantly correlated with the prognosis of patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Finally, the binding modes of EGFR, IL1B, NOS3 and TP53 with quercetin were visualized.

Discussion and Conclusion: Quercetin of Baiying Qinghou decoction showed therapeutic effect against laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma by regulating TP53, EGFR, NOS3 and IL1B involved with drug resistance and PI3K-AKT signaling pathway. TP53, EGFR, NOS3 and IL1B may be the candidate targets for the treatment of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Abbreviations

BYQH: Baiying Qinghou; LSCC: laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma; PPI: protein-protein interaction; HNC: Head and neck cancer; HNSCC: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; TCM: Traditional Chinese medicines; GO: Gene Ontology; OB: oral bioavailability, blood brain barrier; Caco-2: Caco-2 permeability; DL: drug-likeness; HL: half-life; BP: biological process; CC: cellular component; MF: molecular function.