Exploration in the mechanism of fucosterol for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

Abstract

Background It has been demonstrated that fucosterol induces a therapeutic effect on cancer. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of fucosterol in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer are still unclear.Methods In this study, pharmMapper and GeneCards databases were utilized to gather the prediction of fucosterol targets and NSCLC-related targets. The mechanisms of fucosterol against NSCLC were identified in DAVID6.8 by enrichment analysis of GO and KEGG, and protein-protein interaction data was obtained from Sting Database. Molecular docking was used to predict the docking of GRB2. Moreover, the relationship of GRB2 expression and immune infiltrates was analyzed by TIMER database.Results The results suggest that fucosterol acts against by candidate targets, such as MAPK1, EGFR, GRB2, IGF2, MAPK8 and SRC, which regulate biological processes including negative regulation of apoptotic process, peptidyl-tyrosine phosphorylation, positive regulation of cell proliferation. The Raf / MEK / ERK signaling pathway initiated by GRB2 maybe the most significant pathway for fucosterol to treat NSCLC.Conclusions These results show that GRB2 is the key target for fucosterol in the treatment of NSCLC, which laying a theoretical foundation for further research and providing scientific support for the development of new drugs.