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BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies 1/2023

Open Access 01-12-2023 | Breast Cancer | Research

Integrated network pharmacology and cellular assay reveal the biological mechanisms of Limonium sinense (Girard) Kuntze against Breast cancer

Authors: Hualong Zhao, Siyuan Wang, Philip T.F. Williamson, Rob M. Ewing, Xinhui Tang, Jialian Wang, Yihua Wang

Published in: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies | Issue 1/2023

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Abstract

Background

Limonium Sinense (Girard) Kuntze (L. sinense) has been widely used for the treatment of anaemia, bleeding, cancer, and other disorders in Chinese folk medicine. The aim of this study is to predict the therapeutic effects of L. sinense and investigate the potential mechanisms using integrated network pharmacology methods and in vitro cellular experiments.

Methods

The active ingredients of L. sinense were collected from published literature, and the potential targets related to L. sinense were obtained from public databases. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and DisGeNET enrichment analyses were performed to explore the underlying mechanisms. Molecular docking, cellular experiments, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets were employed to further evaluate the findings.

Results

A total of 15 active ingredients of L. sinense and their corresponding 389 targets were obtained. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the biological effects of L. sinense were primarily associated with “Pathways in cancer”. DisGeNET enrichment analysis highlighted the potential role of L. sinense in the treatment of breast cancer. Apigenin within L. sinense showed promising potential against cancer. Cellular experiments demonstrated that the L. sinense ethanol extract (LSE) exhibited a significant growth inhibitory effect on multiple breast cancer cell lines in both 2D and 3D cultures. RNA-seq analysis revealed a potential impact of LSE on breast cancer. Additionally, analysis of GEO datasets verified the significant enrichment of breast cancer and several cancer-related pathways upon treatment with Apigenin in human breast cancer cells.

Conclusion

This study predicts the biological activities of L. sinense and demonstrates the inhibitory effect of LSE on breast cancer cells, highlighting the potential application of L. sinense in cancer treatment.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Integrated network pharmacology and cellular assay reveal the biological mechanisms of Limonium sinense (Girard) Kuntze against Breast cancer
Authors
Hualong Zhao
Siyuan Wang
Philip T.F. Williamson
Rob M. Ewing
Xinhui Tang
Jialian Wang
Yihua Wang
Publication date
01-12-2023
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies / Issue 1/2023
Electronic ISSN: 2662-7671
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-023-04233-z

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