Network Pharmacology-Based Analysis of the Potential Biological Mechanisms of Coix Seed against Colorectal Cancer

The aim of this study was to explore the potential biological mechanisms of coix seed in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) based on network pharmacology analysis.

The active components of coix seed and their potential action targets were retrieved from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform(TCMSP). The disease targets related to CRC were obtained from the DisGeNET database. The intersection targets of the drug targets and disease targets were selected, and a component-target-disease network was built using Cytoscape 3.8.0 tool. A global network of the core target protein interactions was constructed using String database. Biological function analysis and pathway enrichment analysis of core targets were conducted to explore the potential.

A total of nine active components were obtained from the TCMSP database corresponding to 37 targets. Further analysis showed that 18 overlapping targets were associated with CRC. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis was conducted based on the 18 targets and 11 significantly enriched signaling pathways implicated in CRC were identified.

The multicomponent and multitarget characteristics of coix seed are preliminarily verified, and the potential biological mechanisms of coix seed in the treatment of CRC are predicted, which provides a theoretical basis for the experimental research.