Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. May 15, 2025; 17(5): 104737
Published online May 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i5.104737
Validation and analysis of key factors of Banxia Xiexin decoction against gastric cancer
Guo-Xiu Zu, Ji-Qin Tang, Hai-Liang Huang, Tao Han
Guo-Xiu Zu, Tao Han, College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan 250355, Shandong Province, China
Ji-Qin Tang, Hai-Liang Huang, School of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan 250355, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Zu GX and Tang JQ contributed to the methodology and investigation; Zu GX wrote the original draft and contributed to the data curation, software, and formal analysis; Tang JQ contributed to the resources; Huang HL and Han T contributed to supervision and funding acquisition; All authors contributed to the writing, reviewing, and editing and reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Key Program of Shandong Province, China, No. 2016CYJS08A01-6.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Center of Experiment, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, IACUC protocol: No. SDUTCM20230828016.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ji-Qin Tang, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 4655 Daxue Road, Jinan 250355, Shandong Province, China. tjq0312@163.com
Received: January 2, 2025
Revised: January 14, 2025
Accepted: March 4, 2025
Published online: May 15, 2025
Processing time: 135 Days and 3.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

In China Banxia Xiexin decoction (BXD) has been used in treating gastric cancer (GC) for thousands of years. BXD has been shown to reverse GC histopathology, but its chemical composition and action mechanism are still unknown.

AIM

To investigate the mechanism of BXD against GC based on utilizing transcriptomics and proteomics techniques experiments.

METHODS

Using the AGS cell line as the model group, the Cell Counting Kit-8 method and Annexin V-AbFluor™ were employed 488/propidium iodide double staining method was used to detect the levels of cell proliferation and apoptosis. Differential expression genes and differentially expressed proteins before and after BXD intervention were detected using RNA-seq and Pro DIA techniques. Key transcription factors were identified by enrichment and analysis using Metascape, and the key pathways were validated by western blot and reverse transcription PCR in vitro and in vivo experiments.

RESULTS

BXD significantly inhibited the proliferation rate and migration rate of GC cells and promoted cell apoptosis. The comprehensive analysis of transcriptomics and proteomics showed that five transcription factors, namely phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha, phosphoinositide-3-kinase regulatory subunit 1, AKT serine/threonine kinase 1, heat shock protein 90 alpha family class A member 1, and tumor protein p53, were key factors in BXD-mediated anti-cancer therapy and participated in the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathway. In vitro experiments were conducted using LY294002, an inhibitor of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, to validate the expression of five transcription factors at the protein and mRNA levels. In vivo experiments have shown that BXD inhibits tumor growth and suppresses the expression of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

CONCLUSION

Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis showed that BXD inhibited tumor growth and slowed cancer progression by suppressing five factors in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, including phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alpha, phosphoinositide-3-kinase regulatory subunit 1, and AKT serine/threonine kinase 1.

Keywords: Banxia Xiexin decoction; Gastric cancer; Transcriptomics; Proteomics; Inflammatory factors

Core Tip: Based on the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine Banxia Xiexin decoction in the prevention and treatment of gastric cancer, this paper explored the key genes and proteins in gastric cancer cells treated by Banxia Xiexin decoction using whole transcriptomics sequencing and proteomics sequencing technologies. The signaling pathway was explored, and we verified its molecular mechanism by combining in vivo and in vitro experiments.