No abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the mechanism of action of Disulfiram against colon cancer through a network pharmacology approach. The targets were then imported into the Cytoscape 3.7.2 software to construct a network of active ingredient targets and were imported into the STRING database to construct a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, and the Bisogenet plug-in in Cytoscape 3.7.2 was used for network topology analysis. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis were performed on the potential targets of Yiqi and Baiyu Tang for colon cancer using the R-language Bioconductor platform, and the results were imported into Cytoscape 3.7.2 to obtain KEGG network relationship maps. Molecular docking software Autodock Vina was used to map the core targets to the active ingredients. A total of 119 chemical components and 694 disease targets were obtained, including 113 intersecting targets. The key targets included AKT1 and TP53, and GO functional analysis mainly related to ubiquitination and apoptosis, etc. KEGG analysis showed that the treatment of colon cancer with Ganchenzan mainly acted through cancer-related signaling pathways such as AGE-RAGE and P13K-Akt, and the molecular docking results showed the best binding performance with TP53.

An abnormal microenvironment which is not fit for the living of normal cells is induced and maintained due to rapid growth, abnormal energy metabolism and self-regulation of specific proteins of the tumor cells. At the same time, the abnormal microenvironment is the guarantee of the neoplastic transformation, proliferation, invasion and metastasis of tumor cells. The microenvironment mainly consists of interstitial cells and their components. There are correlations between the physiological role of body fluid and the physiological functions of microenvironment. Phlegm is the product of abnormal body fluid metabolism. So to discuss the correlations of them may contribute to clarifying the material base of phlegm and will further give new insight for integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine in cancer research.