epidermal-growth-factor and dioscin

Inverse docking technology has been a trend of drug discovery, and bioinformatics approaches have been used to predict target proteins, biological activities, signal pathways and molecular regulating networks affected by drugs for further pharmacodynamic and mechanism studies.. In the present paper, inverse docking technology was applied to screen potential targets from potential drug target database (PDTD). Then, the corresponding gene information of the obtained drug-targets was applied to predict the related biological activities, signal pathways and processes networks of the compound by using MetaCore platform. After that, some most relevant regulating networks were considered, which included the nodes and relevant pathways of dioscin.. 71 potential targets of dioscin from humans, 7 from rats and 8 from mice were screened, and the prediction results showed that the most likely targets of dioscin were cyclin A2, calmodulin, hemoglobin subunit beta, DNA topoisomerase I, DNA polymerase lambda, nitric oxide synthase and UDP-N-acetylhexosamine pyrophosphorylase, etc. Many diseases including experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis of human, temporal lobe epilepsy of rat and ankylosing spondylitis of mouse, may be inhibited by dioscin through regulating immune response alternative complement pathway, G-protein signaling RhoB regulation pathway and immune response antiviral actions of interferons, etc. The most relevant networks (5 from human, 3 from rat and 5 from mouse) indicated that dioscin may be a TOP1 inhibitor, which can treat cancer though the cell cycle- transition and termination of DNA replication pathway. Dioscin can down regulate EGFR and EGF to inhibit cancer, and also has anti-inflammation activity by regulating JNK signaling pathway.. The predictions of the possible targets, biological activities, signal pathways and relevant regulating networks of dioscin provide valuable information to guide further investigation of dioscin on pharmacodynamics and molecular mechanisms, which also suggests a practical and effective method for studies on the mechanism of other chemicals.

Topics: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Cell Cycle; Computational Biology; Dioscorea; Diosgenin; DNA Topoisomerases, Type I; Down-Regulation; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Epidermal Growth Factor; ErbB Receptors; Gene Regulatory Networks; Humans; Male; MAP Kinase Signaling System; Mice; Neoplasms; Phytotherapy; Protein Binding; Rats; Signal Transduction

The root of Asparagus cochinchinensis (Lour.) Merr. has been utilized as mucoregulators and expectorants for controlling the airway inflammatory diseases in folk medicine.. We investigated whether dioscin and methylprotodioscin isolated from the root of Asparagus cochinchinensis (Lour.) Merr. suppress the gene expression and production of airway MUC5AC mucin induced by phorbol ester and growth factor.. Confluent NCI-H292 cells were pretreated with dioscin or methylprotodioscin for 30 min and then stimulated with EGF or PMA for 24 h. The MUC5AC mucin gene expression was measured by RT-PCR. Production of MUC5AC mucin protein was measured by ELISA.. (1) Dioscin and methylprotodioscin suppressed the expression of MUC5AC mucin gene induced by EGF or PMA; (2) dioscin suppressed the production of MUC5AC mucin induced by either EGF at 10(-5) M (p < 0.05) and 10(-6) M (p < 0.05) or PMA at 10(-4) M (p < 0.05), 10(-5) M (p < 0.05) and 10(-6) M (p < 0.05); (3) methylprotodioscin also suppressed the production of MUC5AC mucin induced by either EGF at 10(-4) M (p < 0.05) or PMA at 10(-4) M (p < 0.05).. These results suggest that dioscin and methylprotodioscin isolated from the root of Asparagus cochinchinensis suppress the gene expression and production of MUC5AC mucin, by directly acting on airway epithelial cells, and the results are consistent with the traditional use of Asparagus cochinchinensis as remedy for diverse inflammatory pulmonary diseases.

Topics: Asparagus Plant; Cell Line, Tumor; Diosgenin; Epidermal Growth Factor; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Humans; Mucin 5AC; Plant Roots; Saponins; Tetradecanoylphorbol Acetate