Unlocking Prognostic Genes and Multi-Targeted Therapeutic Bioactives from Herbal Medicines to Combat
Subramanian Muthamil1, Pandiyan Muthuramalingam2, Hyun-Yong Kim1
1Herbal Medicine Resources Research Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Naju 58245, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Cachexia is a devastating fat tissue and muscle wasting syndrome associated with every major chronic illness, including cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease, AIDS, and heart failure. Despite two decades of intense research, cachexia remains under-recognized by oncologists. While numerous drug candidates have been proposed for cachexia treatment, none have achieved clinical success. Only a few drugs are approved by the FDA for cachexia therapy, but a very low success rate is observed among patients. Currently, the identification of drugs from herbal medicines is a frontier research area for many diseases. In this milieu, network pharmacology, transcriptomics, cheminformatics, and molecular docking approaches were used to identify potential bioactive compounds from herbal medicines for the treatment of cancer-related cachexia. The network pharmacology approach is used to select the 32 unique genes from 238 genes involved in cachexia-related pathways, which are targeted by 34 phytocompounds identified from 12 different herbal medicines used for the treatment of muscle wasting in many countries. Gene expression profiling and functional enrichment analysis are applied to decipher the role of unique genes in cancer-associated cachexia pathways. In addition, the pharmacological properties and molecular interactions of the phytocompounds were analyzed to find the target compounds for cachexia therapy. Altogether, combined omics and network pharmacology approaches were used in the current study to untangle the complex prognostic genes involved in cachexia and phytocompounds with anti-cachectic efficacy. However, further functional and experimental validations are required to confirm the efficacy of these phytocompounds as commercial drug candidates for cancer-associated cachexia.
Insights
Researchers identified potential herbal compounds to treat cancer-related cachexia, a severe muscle-wasting syndrome. This study used network pharmacology and omics approaches to find new therapeutic targets for cachexia.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Science
- Pharmacology
- Genomics
Background:
- Cachexia is a severe muscle and fat wasting syndrome linked to chronic diseases like cancer, heart failure, and COPD.
- Despite extensive research, effective treatments for cachexia are limited, and it is often under-recognized.
- Identifying novel therapeutic compounds from herbal medicines presents a promising research avenue for cachexia treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify potential bioactive compounds from herbal medicines for treating cancer-related cachexia.
- To explore the underlying mechanisms of cachexia using network pharmacology and omics approaches.
- To discover novel therapeutic targets and phytocompounds for cachexia management.
Main Methods:
- Network pharmacology was employed to identify key genes and phytocompounds associated with cachexia.
- Transcriptomics, cheminformatics, and molecular docking were utilized to analyze gene expression, compound properties, and molecular interactions.
- Functional enrichment analysis was performed to understand the role of identified genes in cachexia pathways.
Main Results:
- 32 unique cachexia-related genes were identified from 238 genes involved in cachexia pathways.
- 34 phytocompounds from 12 different herbal medicines were found to target these key genes.
- The study identified potential therapeutic compounds and elucidated their molecular interactions relevant to cachexia.
Conclusions:
- Combined omics and network pharmacology approaches successfully identified potential phytocompounds for cancer-related cachexia treatment.
- The study provides a foundation for developing novel anti-cachectic therapies derived from herbal medicines.
- Further experimental validation is necessary to confirm the efficacy of these phytocompounds as drug candidates.
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