Objective:
Colon cancer is a malignant neoplastic disease that seriously endangers the health of patients. Pulsatilla decoction (PD) has some
therapeutic effects on
colon cancer. This study is based on the analytical methods of network pharmacology and molecular docking to study the mechanism of PD in the treatment of
colon cancer. Methods: Based on the
Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database, the main targets and active ingredients in PD were filtered, and then, the
colon cancer-related targets were screened using Genecards, OMIM, PharmGKB, and Drugbank databases. Then, the screened
drug and disease targets were Venn analyzed to obtain the intersection targets. Cytoscape software was used to construct the "Components-Targets-Pathway" map, and the String database was used to analyze the protein interaction network of the intersecting targets and screen the core targets, and then, the core targets were analyzed using Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses. Molecular docking was implemented using AutoDockTools to predict the binding capacity for the core targets and the active components in PD. Results: Sixty-five ingredients containing 188 nonrepetitive targets were screened and 180 potential targets of PD anticolon
cancer were identified, including 10 core targets, namely, MAPK1, JUN, AKT1, TP53, TNF, RELA,
MAPK14, CXCL8, ESR1, and FOS. The results of GO analysis showed that PD anticolon
cancer may be related to cell proliferation, apoptosis, energy metabolism, immune regulation, signal transduction, and other biological processes. The results of KEGG analysis indicated that the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway,
proteoglycans in
cancer,
IL-17 signaling pathway, cellular senescence, and TNF signaling pathway were mainly involved in the regulation of
tumor cells. We further selected core targets with high degree values as receptor
proteins for molecular docking with the main active ingredients of the
drug, including MAPK1, JUN, and AKT1. The docking results showed good affinity, especially
quercetin. Conclusion: This study preliminarily verified that PD may exert its effect on the treatment of
colon cancer through multi-ingredients, multitargets, and multipathways. This will deepen our understanding of the potential mechanisms of PD anticolon
cancer and establish a foundation for further basic experimental research.