Exploring the mechanism of the potential effects of Liujunzi Tang combined with Suanzaoren Tang in the treatment of lung cancer with insomnia based on network pharmacology and molecular docking technology

This study explores the potential mechanisms of Liujunzi Tang combined with Suanzaoren Tang in treating lung cancer with insomnia through network pharmacology and molecular docking methods. In the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database, each single herb in the formula of Liujunzi Tang combined with Suanzaoren Tang was used as a search term, with repeated traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) searched only once. Oral bioavailability (OB) ≥ 30% and drug-likeness (DL) ≥ 0.18 were set as screening criteria to obtain active components and targets of TCM. Disease-related targets for lung cancer with insomnia were obtained from the Gene Cards database, OMIM database, and PharmGKB database. The disease targets and drug effective component targets were intersected, and a disease-component intersection Venn diagram was drawn. The common intersection targets were imported into the DAVID database for Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomics (KEGG) pathway and gene ontology (GO) function enrichment analysis, and molecular docking was performed to verify the affinity of active components with key targets. A total of 185 effective active components and 241 targets were obtained for Liujunzi Tang combined with Suanzaoren Tang. A total of 4290 disease targets were obtained from 3 disease databases. After removing 138 duplicate targets, a total of 4152 disease targets were obtained. The intersection of component targets and disease targets yielded 120 common targets. KEGG pathway enrichment was found in lipid and atherosclerosis, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetes complications, Kaposi sarcoma-related herpes virus infection, and other signaling pathways. Molecular docking showed that the core components naringenin had good binding activity with AKT1, quercetin and ginsenoside Rh2 with IL1B, and other targets. Through network pharmacology and molecular docking methods, it was explored that Liujunzi Tang combined with Suanzaoren Tang may treat lung cancer with insomnia through multiple components, multiple targets, and multiple pathways, regulating cancer pathways, lipid and atherosclerosis, and other signaling pathways, providing new ideas for the treatment of lung cancer with insomnia.