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Echinacea purpurea is a medicinal plant recognized for its rich array of bioactive constituents, making it a valuable resource for drug development. However, the potential antitumor effects and underlying mechanisms of Echinacea remain largely unexplored.
This study aims to elucidate the active ingredients, targets, and pathways mediating the anti-lung cancer effects of Echinacea through the lens of network pharmacology and to further validate the efficacy of the extract of Echinacea purpurea against lung cancer in vitro.
An 'Echinacea-lung cancer-target' network was constructed using network pharmacology, identifying quercetin, β-sitosterol, rutin, dibutyl phthalate, ferulic acid, and protocatechuic acid as the primary active components contributing to Echinacea's anti-lung cancer activity. These components may exert antitumor effects by modulating key targets, including TP53, AKT1, HSP90AA1, JUN, and IL6, through the PI3K-Akt, MAPK, IL-17, HIF-1, and TNF signaling pathways. Subsequently, MEPT was administered to human lung cancer PC-9 cells, revealing that the Echinacea extract inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and the expression of cell cycle proteins in a concentration- and time-dependent manner while also inducing early apoptosis in tumor cells.
These findings suggest that the anti-lung cancer activity of Echinacea operates through a synergistic mechanism involving multiple components, targets, and pathways, potentially leading to cell cycle arrest and the induction of apoptosis.
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