Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2021, Article ID 6616908, 22 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6616908 Research Article Interpreting the Molecular Mechanisms of Yinchenhao Decoction on Hepatocellular Carcinoma through Absorbed Components Based on Network Pharmacology Jijia Sun ,1 Tao Han,1 Tao Yang ,1,2 Yunhui Chen ,3 and Jihan Huang 1,2 1Center for Drug Clinical Research, Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Service Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China 2Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China 3College of Basic Medicine, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu 610075, China Correspondence should be addressed to Tao Yang; [email protected] and Jihan Huang; [email protected] Received 11 December 2020; Revised 23 April 2021; Accepted 7 May 2021; Published 20 May 2021 Academic Editor: Li-kang SUN Copyright © 2021 Jijia Sun et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To investigate the mechanisms through which Yinchenhao decoction (YCHD) inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we analyzed YCHD ingredients absorbed into the bloodstream by using network pharmacology. We conducted a weighted gene coexpression network analysis on gene expression data collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas databases to derive an HCC gene set; moreover, we used four online prediction system databases to predict the potential targets of YCHD ingredients absorbed into the bloodstream. We discovered that YCHD directly interfered with 17 HCC-related disease targets. Subsequent gene ontology enrichment analyses of these 17 disease targets revealed that YCHD exhibited effects through 17 biological processes, 7 molecular functions, and 9 cellular components. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses indicated 14 pathways through which YCHD inhibits HCC. We observed similar trends in how the 17 small molecules interfered with the key target set. We surmised that YCHD inhibits HCC by regulating inflammatory and metabolic pathways. Network pharmacological analysis of YCHD ingredients absorbed into the bloodstream may provide new insights and serve as a new method for discovering the molecular mechanisms through which YCHD inhibits HCC. 1. Introduction Introduced in Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases), Yinchenhao decoction (YCHD)—which consists Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth most com- of yinchen (Artemisiae Scopariae Herba), dahuang (Radix mon cancer and the third most deadly cancer in China, et Rhizoma Rhei), and zhizi (Gardeniae Fructus)—is a popu- accounting for 85%–90% of primary malignant liver tumors lar remedy in TCM and is commonly used to treat yang jaun- [1]. Although the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib has been dice. A study identified 160 potential targets related to 16 approved as a first-line treatment for late-stage HCC because diseases, including cancer; of these targets, 96 were related of its favorable antiangiogenesis effects, it increases patients’ to cancer [4]. Concerning oral TCM compounds (i.e., medi- survival time by only a few months [2]. Traditional Chinese cine comprising two or more ingredients), the ingredients medicine (TCM), which has a long history of clinical appli- must undergo absorption, distribution, metabolism, and cation, exhibits multimolecule, multitarget, and synergistic excretion before they enter the bloodstream; only molecules effects. TCM has subsequently become a valuable alternative that complete this process are considered active. These mol- for HCC treatment. Therefore, the effectiveness of TCM in ecules merge with targets in the organism and then exhibit inhibiting HCC merits further investigation [3]. medicinal effects. In a preliminary study, we obtained active 2 BioMed Research International Hepatocellular carcinoma Active ingredients YCHD DEGs analysis of WGCNA analysis of YCHD ingredient data GEO & TCGA GEO & TCGA ADMET evaluation 670 HCC genes DEGs WGCNA HCC YCHD Targets prediction & identification 457 36 177 653 17 88 of YCHD Network construction GO & pathway Survival analysis Survival analysis and analysis enrichment analysis 17 HCC targets of 26 key HCC genes YCHD Effective ingredient regulatory network analysis Figure 1: Network pharmacology-based flowchart depicting how YCHD inhibits HCC. chemical molecules by using oral bioavailability (OB) screen- used the highly sensitive ultraperformance liquid chromatog- ing [5], drug-likeness (DL) assessments [6], and intestinal raphy–tandem mass technology to identify the 69 com- epithelial permeability (Caco-2) screening. In that study, we pounds in YCHD, among which 41 were absorbed into the were able to predict which molecules were beneficial; how- bloodstream [7]. Wu et al. conducted a study on major ever, their effects were minimal if the molecule content was anti-HCC components in YCHD in vitro and in vivo [8]. low or if the molecules were metabolized quickly. Sun et al. Nevertheless, the active molecules in YCHD compounds BioMed Research International 3 20 .val) P (adj. 10 10 –Log 0 –4 –2 0 24 Log2 FC Significant Down Not Up (a) Type SLCO1B3 KANK4 3 C9 APOF LPA BBOX1 SRD5A2 GBA3 HAO2 CYP2A6 SLC22A1 GYS2 AKR1D1 GHR MT 1M LINC00844 FLJ22763 NAT2 2 IGJ FOSB FOS CNTN3 CLEC4G CLEC4M CRHBP CLEC1B FCN3 OIT3 CXCL 14 CDHR2 HAMP SRPX CXCL12 BCO2 1 HGFAC SLC25A47 GPR 128 LINC01093 IDO2 KCNN2 ZGPAT CYP26A1 CNDP1 TTC36 TMEM27 CYP1A2 BCHE CLRN3 FREM2 THRSP 0 ST8SIA6–AS1 MAGEA6 COX7B2 LINC01419 ESM1 CRNDE APOBEC3B FAM83D HMMR NDC80 NCAPG KIF4A ANLN NUF2 CDKN3 PBK –1 EZH2 CENPK RAD51AP1 ZWINT GINS1 NUSAP1 RRM2 CCNB1 KIF20A BUB1B PRC1 TOP2A UHRF1 TTK ASPM CENPW –2 UBE2T RACGAP1 S100P CCL20 SPINK1 DKK1 ACSL4 GPC3 ROBO1 ZIC2 CTHRC1 COL15A1 SPP1 LCN2 RBM24 –3 CAP2 LOC344887 AKR1B10 Type N T (b) Figure 2: Continued. 4 BioMed Research International 20 .val) P (adj. 10 10 –Log 0 –4 –2 0 24 Log2 FC Significant Down Not Up (c) Type 4 FREM2 MUC6 CHST4 SFRPS SLC5A1 CD5L SLCO1B3 CYP1A2 CYP3A4 C9 MT1H MT1M MT1F MT1G MT1E PZP SYT9 KCNN2 CYP26A1 INS–IGF2 FCN2 VIPR1 FOSB HAMP MARCO 2 FCN3 CRHBP BMPER STAB2 GDF2 CLEC1B CLEC4G CLEC4M HHIP COLEC10 CCBE1 CXCL 14 RSPO3 SLC22A1 HAO2 HSD17B13 THRSP ADRA1A MFSD2A TTC36 NAT2 SLC25A47 UROC1 CNDP1 IGFALS 0 GPC3 TRIM71 IGF2BP1 TGM3 CPLX2 PGC REG3A MUC13 SFN EPS8L3 MAGEA1 TERT ZIC2 CDKN2A IQGAP3 ASPM KIF20A ANLN CENPF DEPDC1 MELK KIF4A NUF2 NEK2 TTK –2 KIF18B TOP2A CDK1 NCAPG E2F 1 MYBL2 UBE2C CCNB2 KIFC1 HJURP TROAP BIRC5 KIF2C CDC20 CDKN3 CDC25C SKA1 ISX HOXA13 COL15A1 GABRD APLN ESM1 EBF2 THBS4 –4 Type N T (d) Figure 2: Continued. BioMed Research International 5 GEO TCGA 87 493 2220 (e) Figure 2: (a) Volcano map of the GEO-based DEG analysis. (b) Heat map of the GEO-based DEG analysis. (c) Volcano map of TCGA-based DEG analysis. (d) Heat map of TCGA-based DEG analysis. (e) Venn diagram of the intersection between the GEO and TCGA DEGs. and the mechanisms through which these compounds miti- database and collected disease-related gene expression profile gate HCC remain relatively unknown. chips. After analyzing and comparing the different chips, we TCM incorporates complex chemical compositions, and selected the GSE121248 chip for analysis. This chip origi- effective research methods for examining these compositions nated from the GPL570 [HG-U133_Plus_2] Affymetrix are limited; additionally, the pharmacological mechanisms Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array platform, which con- governing TCM have yet to be systematically explained [9]. tains 70 liver cancer samples and 37 normal samples. TCGA Systems pharmacology [10] is an emerging discipline that is a joint project initiated by the American National Cancer involves systematically studying the interaction between Institute and the National Human Genome Research Insti- medicine and organisms as well as the patterns, effects, and tute in 2006. TCGA is the largest cancer gene database world- mechanisms of such medicine. Network pharmacology [11] wide and contains a wealth of clinical information [16]. We is used to study active substances in TCM, identify the targets searched TCGA for (and subsequently downloaded) liver affected by these substances, determine the relationships cancer-related RNA-seq gene expression data and the corre- between effective substances and diseases, and elucidate the sponding clinical data files, which contained 373 tumor sam- molecular mechanisms governing the activities of TCM com- ples and 49 normal samples. pounds. Therefore, systems pharmacology- and network pharmacology-based studies offer new perspectives and 2.2. DEG-Based Disease Gene Analysis. We used the limma insights into TCM compounds. Regarding the use of network package (version: 3.42.2) in R language to analyze DEGs pharmacology to study TCM, our laboratory has performed identified in the GSE121248 and TCGA data. Subsequently, numerous experiments and explored the pharmacological we filtered out upregulated and downregulated DEGs from mechanisms governing zuojin pills [12], huanglian jiedu the GEO and TCGA chip data by using the following j j : :p: : decoction [13], and huachansu capsules [14] in the treatment conditions: log2FC >10 and adj value < 0 05. Finally, we of HCC. employed the ggplot2 package (version: 3.3.1) and