Integrating network pharmacology and molecular docking to elucidate the mechanism of Xiaotan Sanjie Fang in colorectal cancer therapy

Colorectal cancer (CRC), as a common malignant tumor of digestive tract, is a serious threat to people's life and health. At present, the commonly used therapeutic drugs have the characteristics of large effect and easy resistance, forcing us to find highly effective and low toxicity therapeutic drugs. Xiaotan Sanjie Fang (XTSJF) has achieved good clinical efficacy as an empirical prescription for the treatment of gastrointestinal tumors in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but its specific composition and molecular mechanism are still unclear. We therefore investigated the potential mechanism of action of XTSJF in the treatment of CRC using network pharmacology and molecular docking approaches. First we collected components and targets of XTSJF from public databases (TCMSP and BATMAN) and CRC targets from disease databases (Genecards and OMIM); then we obtained cross-targets of XTSJF and CRC by Venn diagram mapping. Continued enrichment analysis of cross-targets using Cytoscape and R software identified PI3K/AKT as a possible critical signaling pathway. Finally, EGFR, JUN, RELA, STAT3, and TP53 were identified as key targets by topological analysis and molecular docking, and 5 key genes were further validated by gene and protein expression analysis of key targets. The hairstyle of these results provides a direction for in-depth studies of XTSJF in CRC.