Study on the mechanism of "Sangu Decoction" in the treatment of bone metastatic carcinoma

Objective: To study the mechanism of "Sangu Decoction" in the treatment of bone metastatic carcinoma by network pharmacology. Methods: TCMSP, TCMID and TCM Database@ Taiwan databases and literature search were used to screen the main effective components of drugs. Swiss Target and TCMSP databases were used to search the potential therapeutic targets of "Sangu Decoction". DisGeNet and Drugbank databases were used to search the genes of bone metastatic carcinoma. Drug action targets and disease genes were mapped. Cytoscape 3.8.1 software was used to visualize and screen out the core genes. GO and KEGG pathway analysis was performed on potential therapeutic targets. Results: There were 29 main active ingredients in "Sangu Decoction", which contained 413 target proteins. There are 773 disease targets of bone metastatic carcinoma, of which 112 are potential targets of "Sangu Decoction" for the treatment of bone metastatic carcinoma. Through GO and KEGG pathway analysis, it was found that "Sangu Decoction" exerted anti-cancer, inhibiting bone metastasis and immune regulation mechanism through TNF, ErbB, FoxO, PI3K-Akt, Toll-like Receptor, NOD-like Receptor, Rap1 and other signaling pathways in the treatment of bone metastatic carcinoma. The key genes of "Sangu Decoction" in treating bone metastatic carcinoma are VEGFA, AKT1, IL6, TP53, MAPK3, SRC, EGFR and CASP3 and so on. Conclusion: In this study, we constructed a a multi-level interaction "traditional Chinese medicine -compound- target -pathway" network through network pharmacology, and found that the mechanism of "Sangu Decoction" in the treatment of bone metastasis cancer involves multiple targets and pathways, which may be related to anti-cancer, inhibition of bone metastasis, regulation of immunity and so on.