Regulatory Mechanisms of Coicis Semen on Bionetwork of Liver Cancer Based on Network Pharmacology

Abstract

At present, there is an increasing incidence and mortality of liver cancer. Despite surgery and chemoradiotherapy, there is a lack of effective oral medications with low side effects. In East Asia, Coicis Semen (CS) is used as both food and natural medicine and has a significant impact on the treatment of liver cancer. However, due to its multicomponent and multitarget characteristics, the mechanisms of CS against liver cancer remain unclear. This study collected CS compounds and target proteins in SymMap, then cross-matched with the liver cancer targets in the CTD database to construct an interaction network of CS-liver cancer proteins, and visualized by Cytoscape software. DAVID database was used to perform pathway enrichment analysis to find target proteins in core pathways and the related small molecules in CS. The results showed that a total of 103 common genes shared by CS and liver cancer were obtained, which were enriched for precancerous lesion pathways such as hepatitis B and fatty liver and biological signaling pathways such as HIF-1 and TNF. The combination of sitosterol and CASP3 in CS, acting on “pathways in cancer” and restoring normal cell apoptosis, could be the core mechanisms of CS in the treatment of liver cancer. Based on the system biology analysis, it is speculated that CS may not only participate in multiple mechanisms of action to treat liver cancer synergistically but may also be involved in factors that reduce the incidence of liver cancer.