Molecular mechanism of Spatholobi Caulis in treatment of lung cancer based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

In this paper, the molecular mechanism of Spatholobi Caulis in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) was studied through network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis. With traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) Spatholobi Caulis as the study object, active ingredients of Spatholobi Caulis and corresponding potential drug targets were obtained from Traditio-nal Chinese Medicine Pharmacology Platform(TCMSP) database; GeneCards database was used to collect cancer-related genes; Cytoscape software was used to build Spatholobi Caulis active ingredient-target-pathway relationship network. DAVID database was used for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of targets, KEGG signaling pathway was visualized, and compounds were screened out for molecular docking. Finally, in vitro experiments on human lung cancer cells, A549 treated with luteolin and licochalcone A were used to preliminarily verify the core targets and pathways, cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8 method, and expressions of caspase-3 and Bax protein were detected by Western blot. A total of 23 active components and 170 potential drug targets were selected from Spatholobi Caulis, involving 127 pathways in total. Molecular docking results showed that licochalcone A,(Z)-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-N-[2-(4-hydroxy-phenyl) ethyl] acrylamide, consumeclose grain successfully docked with the key target EGFR, and binding energy of the three compounds was less than-5 kcal·mol~(-1). CCK-8 results showed that luteolin, licochalcone A, and Spatholobi Caulis extract had the inhibitory effect on human lung cancer A549 cells. Western blot showed that luteolin, licochalcone A and Spatholobi Caulis extract could induce cell apoptosis by increasing the expressions of pro-apoptotic factors caspase-3 and Bax. In this study, the anti-lung cancer effect of Spatholobi Caulis was studied through network pharmacology and molecular docking, in order to provide ideas for the molecular mechanism of Spatholobi Caulis in the treatment of lung cancer.