Systemic Pharmacological Approach to Identification and Experimental Verification of the Effect of Anisi Stellati Fructus Extract on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Anisi stellati fructus (ASF) is the dried fruit of the Illicium verum Hook.f. tree. The aim of this research was to evaluate the antileukemic effect of ASF on chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells, which was hypothesized from the systemic pharmacological analysis of ASF, focusing on the combined effect of ASF extract (ASFE) and imatinib (IM). The compounds of ASF were identified using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database and analysis platform. The target gene information was acquired from the UniProt database. The compound and target interaction network was generated from Cytoscape 3.7.1. Using this analysis, 10 compounds effective against CML cells were obtained. ASFE was prepared and analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography to provide experimental proof for the relationship between ASF and CML. The anti-p210Bcr-Abl effects of ASFE and ASFE + IM combination were evaluated by western blotting. Either ASFE alone or in combined treatment with IM on K-562 CML cells resulted in a significant reduction of the Bcr-Abl levels. As expected from the systemic analysis results, ASF had antileukemic activity, showing that it is a potential therapy for CML.