Investigation of Substance Basis and Pharmacodynamics of Qingzao Jiefei Decoction in Lung Cancer based on Serum Pharmacochemistry and Proteomics

Qingzao Jiufei Decoction (QD) is a renowned prescription for nourishing lung Yin to treat lung-related diseases in ancient and modern times. It has been reported that QD can effectively inhibit the growth of lung cancer (LC), but the material basis and mechanism of its treatment of LC remain to be further studied. In this experiment, we combined serum pharmacochemistry and proteomics to study the pharmacodynamic material basis and mechanism of QD against LC. The results showed that in vitro a total of 121 compounds were identified. A total of 33 prototype chemical components were identified in vivo, which may be effective active ingredients for QD treatment of LC. Proteomic experiments have shown that compared with the model group, 113 DEPs in LC tissues were significantly changed after QD treatment, among which 57 proteins were significantly up-regulated and 56 proteins were significantly down-regulated (p < 0.05). Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis was performed on these DEPs. A total of 205 pathways were enriched, and the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway was experimentally verified. The results showed that QD can be used to treat LC by inhibiting the activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.