Phosphoinositide 3‐Kinase Inhibitors from <i>Gladiolus Segetum</i> Ker‐Gawl Corms Supported by Network Pharmacology

Gladiolus segetum Ker-Gawl corms total extract exhibited remarkable in vitro anti-proliferative effects against panel of cancer cell lines; including human colon carcinoma (Caco-2), human breast cancer (MCF7) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 7.4, 9.1 and 11.2 μg/ml, respectively. The total ethanolic extract of G. segetum Ker-Gawl corms was subjected to untargeted metabolomics profiling using LC-HR-ESI-MS, which revealed the presence of various clusters of phytoconstituents as triterpenes, anthraquinones, flavonoids and phenolic derivatives. Network pharmacology study was performed for all identified compounds, the formed networks identified 73 intersected genes. The diagrammatic illustration of the top pathways revealed that phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3 K) gene is the effective dominant gene in the top four KEGG pathways. Upon molecular docking and molecular dynamics investigation, kaempferol-3-O-glucopyranoside was suggested to be key anticancer metabolite. Interestingly, cytotoxic investigation of this compound revealed potential activity against the tested cancer cell lines (Caco-2, MCF7 and HepG2) with IC₅₀ values of 6.2, 8.5 and 9.3 μg/ml, respectively. The present study highlighted the potential of G. segetum Ker-Gawl as a promising source of interesting anticancer scaffolds.