Mechanisms of Compound Kushen Injection for the Treatment of Lung Cancer Based on Network Pharmacology

Background. Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) is a Chinese patent drug that shows good efficacy in treating lung cancer (LC). However, its underlying mechanisms need to be further clarified. Methods. In this study, we adopted a network pharmacology method to gather compounds, predict targets, construct networks, and analyze biological functions and pathways. Moreover, molecular docking simulation was employed to assess the binding potential of selected target-compound pairs. Results. Four networks were established, including the compound-putative target network, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of LC targets, compound-LC target network, and herb-compound-target-pathway network. Network analysis showed that 8 targets (CHRNA3, DRD2, PRKCA, CDK1, CDK2, CHRNA5, MMP1, and MMP9) may be the therapeutic targets of CKI in LC. In addition, molecular docking simulation indicated that CHRNA3, DRD2, PRKCA, CDK1, CDK2, MMP1, and MMP9 had good binding activity with the corresponding compounds. Furthermore, enrichment analysis indicated that CKI might exert a therapeutic role in LC by regulating some important pathways, namely, pathways in cancer, proteoglycans in cancer, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, non-small-cell lung cancer, and small cell lung cancer. Conclusions. This study validated and predicted the mechanism of CKI in treating LC. Additionally, this study provides a good foundation for further experimental studies and promotes the reasonable application of CKI in the clinical treatment of LC.