Purpose: Huashi Baidu formula (HSBDF) was developed to treat the patients with severe COVID-19 in China. The purpose of this study was to explore its active compounds and demonstrate its mechanisms against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) through network pharmacology and molecular docking. Methods: All the components of HSBDF were retrieved from the pharmacology database of TCM system. The genes corresponding to the targets were retrieved using UniProt and GeneCards database. The herb-compound-target network was constructed by Cytoscape. The target protein-protein interaction network was built using STRING database. The core targets of HSBDF were analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). The main active compounds of HSBDF were docked with SARS-CoV-2 and angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2). Results: Compound-target network mainly contained 178 compounds and 272 corresponding targets. Key targets contained MAPK3, MAPK8, TP53, CASP3, IL6, TNF, MAPK1, CCL2, PTGS2, etc. There were 522 GO items in GO enrichment analysis (p < .05) and 168 signaling pathways (p < .05) in KEGG, mainly including TNF signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, and HIF-1 signaling pathway. The results of molecular docking showed that baicalein and quercetin were the top two compounds of HSBDF, which had high affinity with ACE2. Conclusion: Baicalein and quercetin in HSBDF may regulate multiple signaling pathways through ACE2, which might play a therapeutic role on COVID-19.

The mitochondrial GTPase mitofusin-2 (MFN2) has previously been reported to play a role in regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation in a number of cell types. Here, we report that breast cancer patients with low MFN2 expression are associated with poor prognosis as compared to patients with high MFN2 expression. We find that MFN2 knockout from MCF7 and A549 cells via Crispr/Cas9 greatly promotes cell viability, colony formation, and invasion of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, which were confirmed by colony formation assay, transwell invasion assay, and tumor xenograft model. Signaling analyses suggest the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2)/Akt signaling pathway is highly elevated in MFN2 knockout cancer cells. The elevated mTORC2 promotes cancer cell growth and metastasis via AktS437 phosphorylation mediated signaling pathway. Mechanistic studies reveal that MFN2 suppresses mTORC2 through direct interaction by binding its domain HR1. Inhibition of mTORC2 significantly suppresses MFN2 deficient tumor growth. Collectively, this study provides novel insights into the tumor progression associated with MFN2 deficiency and suggests that the importance of mTORC2 inhibitor in the treatment of MFN2 downregulated cancer patients.

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The metastasis of colorectal cancer is one of the most common causes of death in the world. In this investigation, we used the human colon cancer cell lines LOVO and HT29 as model systems to determine the role of the chloride intracellular channel 1 (CLIC1) in the metastasis of colonic cancer. In the present study, we found that regulatory volume decrease (RVD) capacity was markedly up-regulated in LOVO cells, which are characterized by a high metastatic potential. Functionally suppressing CLIC1 using the specific chloride intracellular channel 1 blocker Indanyloxyacetic acid 94 inhibited RVD and decreased the migration and invasion of colon cancer cells. Moreover, these effects occurred in a dose-dependent manner. The migration and invasion abilities in two cell lines also were inhibited by the knockdown of CLIC1 using small interfering RNA transfection. The mRNA and protein expression of CLIC1 is up-regulated in LOVO cells. In human colon cancer cells, CLIC1 is primarily located in the plasma membrane, where it functions as a chloride channel. Taken together, the results suggest that CLIC1 modulates the metastasis of colon cancer through its RVD-mediating chloride channel function. This study demonstrates, for the first time, that CLIC1 regulates the migration and invasion of colon cancer.