Investigating the Mechanism of Scutellariae barbata Herba in the Treatment of Gastric Cancer by Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

Abstract

Gastric cancer is one of the most common gastrointestinal tumors, annually accounting for about 10 % of all diagnosed cancers and cancer mortalities worldwide. Scutellariae barbata Herba is one of the most commonly used Chinese medicines to treat gastric cancer. Although numerous experiments have been conducted to decipher the mechanism of Scutellariae barbata Herba, it has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, we constructed a pharmacological and molecular docking network to understand the mechanism of action of Scutellariae barbata Herba. The active components and targets of Scutellariae barbata Herba were screened with traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology. Gastric cancer related targets were screened using online mendelian inheritance in man and GeneCards Suite database platforms. The intersection target genes of Scutellariae barbata Herba and gastric cancer were retrieved by R software. The Cytoscape software was utilized to draw a drug-compound gene-disease visualization network diagram. The string online analysis platform was incorporated to construct the target-protein interaction network for screening the core targets. Gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes enrichment analyses were performed on the core targets. PyMoL and other software were utilized to verify the molecular docking between the key active components of Scutellariae barbata Herba and the key targets. Our results elucidate the active components, associated targets, biological processes and signaling pathways of Scutellariae barbata Herba during gastric cancer treatment. This study deepens our understanding of the potential role of Scutellariae barbata Herba in gastric cancer and provides novel ideas for treating gastric cancer using Scutellariae barbata Herba.