Network pharmacology-based approach to investigate the mechanisms of Shenqi Fuzheng injection in the treatment of breast cancer

Abstract Introduction Breast cancer (BC) is increasing in Chinese women but the high cost and adverse side effects experienced as a result of western medicine leads to treatment drop out. Shenqi Fuzheng injection (SQFZI) is a traditional Chinese medicine consisting of Radix Astragali and Radix Codonopsis extracts. Although extensively and effectively used clinically to treat BC, the molecular mechanism requires elucidation. Methods A network pharmacology approach mainly comprised of target prediction, network construction, and molecular docking simulation was adopted in this study. Results Twenty-five active components were identified by a literature search, corresponding to 262 putative targets. The network analysis showed that CA1, CA2, CA9, CA12, ESR1, ESR2, CDK1, CDK4, CDK6 and DRD2 were identified as core targets of SQFZI. Functional enrichment analysis manifested that SQFZI probably produced therapeutic effects against BC by synergistically regulating different biological pathways, such as nitrogen metabolism, adherens junctions, gap junctions, HIF-1 signalling pathway and proteoglycans in cancer. Moreover, molecular docking simulation proved that these key targets had high binding scores to the corresponding compounds. Conclusions This study explored and analyzed the mechanism of SQFZI in the treatment of BC. These data provide the foundation for further experimental studies and may act to promote its appropriate clinical application.