The Study of a Network Pharmacology of Signaling Pathways and Target Genes of Berberine Substance in the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer Using Bioinformatics Analysis

Subject Areas : Journal of Animal Biology

Sanaz Panahi Alanagh ¹ (Department of Animal Sciences and Marine Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)
Yasaman Khamineh ² (Department of Animal Sciences and Marine Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)
Mahmood Talkhabi ³ (Department of Animal Sciences and Marine Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2024-04-02 Accepted : 2024-05-16 Published : 2024-08-06

Keywords: Ovarian cancer, Berberine, Network pharmacology, DEGs, Protein-protein interaction network,

Abstract :

Ovarian cancer is one of the fatal diseases in women, which is difficult to diagnose early. Therefore, there is an urgent need for chemical agents that can help control the development of ovarian cancer. Berberine, as a chemical substance, has many antioxidant and medicinal properties, and the anti-cancer role of this substance is under research. This study aims to analyze berberine target genes in ovarian cancer and to identify berberine signaling pathways using network pharmacology. In this study, the dataset GSE36668 was taken from the GEO database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were analyzed by GEO2R with adj p < 0.05 and ∣logFC∣ ≤ 2. Berberine-related targets were collected from SwissTargetPrediction and Pharm Mapper databases. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of berberine common targets and DEGs was drawn based on the data in the String database and using Cytoscape software. Common genes in berberine and ovarian cancer were used to investigate biological (BP), molecular (MF), and cellular pathways. The 10 hub genes selected in this study included ESR1, STAT1, CDK1, RXRA, PIK3CA, PGR, CCNB1, CHEK1, PIK3R1, and PIK3CG. It was also found that berberine target genes can play a role in cancer signaling pathways, chemical carcinogenesis, fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, and PPAR signaling pathway. Based on these findings, berberine can affect the expression of genes that are effective in ovarian cancer and their protein products, and by affecting the biological pathways involved in this disease, it is a suitable solution for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

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