Relationship Between San-Huang-Xie-Xin-Tang and Its Herbal Components on the Gene Expression Profiles in HepG2 Cells

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used for thousands of years. Most Chinese herbal formulae consist of several herbal components and have been used to treat various diseases. However, the mechanisms of most formulae and the relationship between formulae and their components remain to be elucidated. Here we analyzed the putative mechanism of San-Huang-Xie-Xin-Tang (SHXXT) and defined the relationship between SHXXT and its herbal components by microarray technique. HepG2 cells were treated with SHXXT or its components and the gene expression profiles were analyzed by DNA microarray. Gene set enrichment analysis indicated that SHXXT and its components displayed a unique anti-proliferation pattern via p53 signaling, p53 activated, and DNA damage signaling pathways in HepG2 cells. Network analysis showed that most genes were regulated by one molecule, p53. In addition, hierarchical clustering analysis showed that Rhizoma Coptis shared a similar gene expression profile with SHXXT. These findings may explain why Rhizoma Coptis is the principle herb that exerts the major effect in the herbal formula, SHXXT. Moreover, this is the first report to reveal the relationship between formulae and their herbal components in TCM by microarray and bioinformatics tools.

Application of bioactivity database of Chinese herbal medicine on the therapeutic prediction, drug development, and safety evaluation

“…Microarray data show that SHXXT exhibits an anti-proliferation effect via p53 and DNA damage signaling pathways. Moreover, Rhizoma Coptis shares a similar gene expression profile with SHXXT, suggesting that Rhizoma Coptis is the principle herb that exerts the major effect in SHXXT (Cheng et al, 2008). EGb 761, a well-defined extract from Ginkgo biloba, has been widely used in patients with cerebral disorders.…”

Vanillin Improves and Prevents Trinitrobenzene Sulfonic Acid-Induced Colitis in Mice

“…Vanillin has been reported to inhibit mutagenesis induced by chemical and physical mutagens and to suppress the invasion and migration of cancer cells (Lirdprapamongkol et al, 2005;Cheng et al, 2008;Liang et al, 2009). It also displays chemopreventive effects in multiorgan carcinogenesis and hepatocarcinogenesis models in rats (Akagi et al, 1995).…”

Omic techniques in systems biology approaches to traditional Chinese medicine research: Present and future

“…Such a transcriptomic approach has been used to study the biological effect of CHM in a wide range of conditions, from cancer to fibrosis, and gastrointestinal, neurological, metabolical and immune disorders (Cheng et al, 2008;Efferth et al, 2011;Guo et al, 2010;Kang et al, 2005;Meng et al, 2010;Pan-Hammarström et al, 2006;Sakai et al, 2007;Sun et al, 2008;Watanabe-Fukuda et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2011a,b,c;Yin et al, 2004;Zhuang et al, 2004). An interesting recent development in the use of transcriptomics indicated that this method can be used as a platform for translational research in CHM, by comparing the transcriptomic patterns with genetic databases of drug-altered genes (Lamb, 2007), drug metabolism-related genes and toxicityassociated genes (Hayes et al, 2005).…”

“…Using a network analysis to visualise the possible relationship between p53 and other regulated genes, it was established that most of them were connected to p53, thus indicating a central role for p53 in the apoptosis-inducing network. Moreover, using hierarchical cluster analysis, it was shown that one of the plants in the formula, Rhizoma Coptis, showed a similar pattern, thus allowing the identification of the likely principal component of the formula for this effect (Cheng et al, 2008).…”