Bioinformatics and in-silico findings reveal medical features and pharmacological targets of biochanin A against colorectal cancer and COVID-19

Abstract

Severe mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted from the lack of effective treatment. Although COVID-19 vaccines are available, their side effects have become a challenge for clinical use in patients with chronic diseases, especially cancer patients. In the current report, we applied network pharmacology and systematic bioinformatics to explore the use of biochanin A in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and COVID-19 infection. Using the network pharmacology approach, we identified two clusters of genes involved in immune response ( IL1A, IL2 , and IL6R ) and cell proliferation ( CCND1, PPARG , and EGFR ) mediated by biochanin A in CRC/COVID-19 condition. The functional analysis of these two gene clusters further illustrated the effects of biochanin A on interleukin-6 production and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction in CRC/COVID-19 pathology. In addition, pathway analysis demonstrated the control of PI3K-Akt and JAK-STAT signaling pathways by biochanin A in the treatment of CRC/COVID-19. The findings of this study provide a therapeutic option for combination therapy against COVID-19 infection in CRC patients.

Comprehensive exploration of Biochanin A as an oncotherapeutics potential in the treatment of multivarious cancers with molecular insights

“…Already, different phytochemicals, including curcumin (Jerah et al, 2015), formononetin (Suryani, 2018), and hesperetin (Jaganathan et al, 2021) have been evaluated for anticancer activities by computational approaches. Qin et al (2021) cells in breast cancer (Ren et al, 2018). According to an in silico study, and athymic mice at 50 μg/mL dose (Rice et al, 2002).…”

“…Already, different phytochemicals, including curcumin (Jerah et al, 2015), formononetin (Suryani, 2018), and hesperetin (Jaganathan et al, 2021) have been evaluated for anticancer activities by computational approaches. Qin et al (2021) reported that BCA decreased cytokine production, including interleukin‐6, and controlled PI3K‐Akt and JAK‐STAT signaling mechanism, leading to regulating cell proliferation, cell growth, and apoptosis in COVID‐19‐infected CRC patients. Ghani et al (2020) invested with these compounds and found that BCA demonstrated a higher tendency for binding Bcl‐xl, particularly Bcl‐2 proteins, which had a binding energy of −8.5 kcal/mol, indicating inhibited apoptosis pathways in ovarian cancer.…”

“…Although some pharmacological actions of BCA are adequately described in the previous literature review, a proper explanation with a detailed anticancer perspective of this natural phytoestrogen has not yet been reported. However, some experimental studies of BCA with numerous cancer types have been made in multiple preclinical models of breast (Moon et al, 2008), cervical (Xu et al, 2022), colon (Puthli et al, 2013), colorectal (Xu et al, 2022), gastric (Qin et al, 2021), glioblastoma (Sehm et al, 2014), liver (Youssef et al, 2016), lung (Li et al, 2018), melanoma (Wang, Li, et al, 2018), oral (Lin et al, 2011), osteosarcoma (Zhao et al, 2018), ovarian (Ghani et al, 2020), pancreatic (Bhardwaj et al, 2014), pharynx (Cho et al, 2017), prostate (Szliszka et al, 2013), and umbilical vein (Xu et al, 2022) cancer.…”

“…Akt, JAK-STAT pathway has been downregulated by BCA, which can decrease gastric cancer cell proliferation(Qin et al, 2021).BCA can be used for oral cancer treatment. It can decrease cell proliferation by downregulating the phosphorylation of ERK and Akt when 20-100 μM doses are administered in SCC15 and SCC25 cell lines(Johnson et al, 2010).…”

Anurans against SARS-CoV-2: A review of the potential antiviral action of anurans cutaneous peptides

“…Some peptides and some drugs were recently identified through in silico experiments as potential candidates to treat COVID-19 disease ( Wang, 2020 ; Çakır et al, 2021 ; Qin et al, 2021 ). Wang (2020) was the first study to identify approved drugs that could be effective against the SARS-Cov-2, such as Lopinavir and Elbasvir.…”