Project description:Limonium Sinense (Girard) Kuntze is a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, showing blood replenishment, anti-tumour, anti-hepatitis, and immunomodulation activities amongst others. However, the mechanism of its pharmacological activities remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of bioactive ingredients from Limonium Sinense using integrated analysis. Water extracts from Limonium Sinense (LSW) showed a strong growth inhibitory effect on multiple cells in both 2D and 3D cultures. Global transcriptomic profiling and further connectivity map (CMap) analysis identified several similarly acting therapeutic candidates, including Tubulin inhibitors and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) modulators. The effect of LSW on cell cycle was verified with flow cytometry showing a G2/M phase arrest. Integrated analysis suggested a role for gallic acid in mediating HIF activation. Taken together, this study provides novel insights into the bioactive ingredients in Limonium Sinense, highlighting the rich natural resource and therapeutic values of herbal plants.
Project description:Limonium Sinense (Girard) Kuntze (L. sinense) has been widely used for the treatment of anaemia, bleeding, cancer, and other disorders in Chinese folk medicine. The aim of this study is to predict the therapeutic effects of L. sinense and investigate the potential mechanisms using integrated network pharmacology methods and in vitro cellular experiments. A total of 15 active ingredients of L. sinense and their corresponding 389 targets were obtained. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the biological effects of L. sinense were primarily associated with Pathways in cancer. DisGeNET enrichment analysis highlighted the potential role of L. sinense in the treatment of breast cancer. Cellular experiments demonstrated that the L. sinense ethanol extract (LSE) exhibited a significant growth inhibitory effect on multiple breast cancer cell lines in both 2D and 3D cultures. This study predicts the biological activities of L. sinense and demonstrates the inhibitory effect of LSE on breast cancer cells, highlighting the potential application of L. sinense in cancer treatment.
