Network Pharmacology Approach Reveals the Potential Immune Function Activation and Tumor Cell Apoptosis Promotion of Xia Qi Decoction in Lung Cancer

Diagnosis of SPECT/CT bone imaging combined with two serum examinations in patients with bone metastases from pulmonary cancer

PURPOSE

To study the clinical diagnostic value of SPECT/CT bone imaging combined with two serum examinations in patients with bone metastases from pulmonary cancer.

METHODS

The clinical data of 120 patients consistent with pulmonary cancer admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Hebei North University from March 2019 to December 2019 were selected for retrospective analysis, and they were divided into the bone metastasis group (n = 58) and non-bone metastasis group (n = 62) according to comprehensive evaluation result of X-ray, CT, MRI and clinical follow-up. The CT values of patients were obtained by SPECT/CT bone imaging to compare serum levels of ALP (alkaline phosphatase belongs to phosphoric monoester hydrolases, as a specific phosphatase, mainly in body tissues and body fluid) and BAP (bone alkaline phosphatase is formed by different modification and processing of alkaline phosphatase, and is mainly released by osteoblasts) and CT values of patients in both groups, using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of single detection and combined detection.

RESULTS

SPECT/CT bone imaging in patients with bone metastasis from pulmonary cancer showed abnormal radioactive accumulation in spine, pelvis and bilateral ribs. Serum ALP, BAP and CT values in bone metastasis group were overtly higher than the non-bone metastasis group (P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that serum ALP, BAP and CT value were independent risk factors for bone metastasis from pulmonary cancer. The AUC value and Youden index of combined diagnosis were higher than those of single diagnosis.

CONCLUSION

SPECT/CT bone imaging combined with serum detection of ALP and BAP in patients with pulmonary cancer is helpful for early diagnosis of bone metastasis, which provides more basis for the formulation and selection of clinical treatment options.

Pharmacological Effects of Genistein on Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders that involve the heart or blood vessels and are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Natural products have several pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunoregulatory properties. This review summarizes the possible therapeutic effects of Genistein on CVD. The information from the current review study was obtained by searching for the keywords such as "Genistein", "Cardiac dysfunction", "hypertrophy", and "Ischemia" "lipid profile" in different online database such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, until February 2022. The results of the studies showed that genistein intake has a promising effect on improving cardiac dysfunction, ischemia, and reperfusion of the heart, decreasing cardiac toxicity, modulating lipid profile, and lowering blood pressure. The preventive effects of genistein on experimental models of studies were shown through mechanisms such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects. Pharmacological effects of genistein on cardiac dysfunction, cardiac toxicity, lipid profile, and hypertension indicate the possible remedy effect of this agent in the treatment of CVD.

Network Pharmacology Approach for Medicinal Plants: Review and Assessment

Natural products have played a critical role in medicine due to their ability to bind and modulate cellular targets involved in disease. Medicinal plants hold a variety of bioactive scaffolds for the treatment of multiple disorders. The less adverse effects, affordability, and easy accessibility highlight their potential in traditional remedies. Identifying pharmacological targets from active ingredients of medicinal plants has become a hot topic for biomedical research to generate innovative therapies. By developing an unprecedented opportunity for the systematic investigation of traditional medicines, network pharmacology is evolving as a systematic paradigm and becoming a frontier research field of drug discovery and development. The advancement of network pharmacology has opened up new avenues for understanding the complex bioactive components found in various medicinal plants. This study is attributed to a comprehensive summary of network pharmacology based on current research, highlighting various active ingredients, related techniques/tools/databases, and drug discovery and development applications. Moreover, this study would serve as a protocol for discovering novel compounds to explore the full range of biological potential of traditionally used plants. We have attempted to cover this vast topic in the review form. We hope it will serve as a significant pioneer for researchers working with medicinal plants by employing network pharmacology approaches.

Study on the Drug Targets and Molecular Mechanisms of Rhizoma Curcumae in the Treatment of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Based on Network Pharmacology

Aim

To analyse the target of Rhizoma Curcumae in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by using network pharmacological techniques and to explore the associated molecular mechanism.

Methods

The targets of nasopharyngeal carcinoma were retrieved from the GeneCards database. At the same time, the drug therapeutic targets of Rhizoma Curcumae were obtained from the TCMSP and SymMap databases. The data were imported into the STRING database and Cytoscape 3.7.1 to construct a network of “Chinese medicine component-target-disease” interactions; then, the intersection was screened as the core Rhizoma Curcumae antinasopharyngeal cancer targets. Through GO target function and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of the core targets, we predicted the biological processes and key signalling pathways involved in the Rhizoma Curcumae treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Results

Twenty-five core targets of Rhizoma Curcumae in nasopharyngeal carcinoma were mined: TP53, BCL2 ICAM1 RXRA, TLR3 and TLR9, TNF, PTGS2, IL-6, CTSD, MMP2, MMP9, MMP14, TIMP2, ABCC1, ABCB1, ABCG2, and so on. The results of visual analysis showed that the Rhizoma Curcumae treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma mainly involves leukocyte adhesion to vascular endothelial cells, positive regulation of NF-κB import into the nucleus, regulation of the reactive oxygen species biosynthetic and metabolic process, regulation of the chemokine biosynthetic and metabolic process, various cancer-related signalling pathways, and a variety of cytokine signal transduction pathways, such as the NF-κB, TLR, IL-17, and TNF signalling pathways.

Conclusion

The core targets predicted by our research can be used as molecular markers for the treatment and prediction of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The mechanism of Rhizoma Curcumae treatment in NPC may be related to immune regulatory pathways, the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenesis, as well as the regulation of tumour microenvironment. Combined with the prediction of its associated mechanism of action, the core targets can provide targeted reference value for subsequent drug development related to Curcuma.

Immune system activation by natural products and complex fractions: a network pharmacology approach in cancer treatment

Natural products and traditional herbal medicine are an important source of alternative bioactive compounds but very few plant-based preparations have been scientifically evaluated and validated for their potential as medical treatments. However, a promising field in the current therapies based on plant-derived compounds is the study of their immunomodulation properties and their capacity to activate the immune system to fight against multifactorial diseases like cancer. In this review we discuss how network pharmacology could help to characterize and validate natural single molecules or more complex preparations as promising cancer therapies based on their multitarget capacities.