Inhibitory effect of saffron on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma via targeting of ESR1 and CCND1 by its active compound crocetin  

作　　者：Xiao-Jie Wang Ming-Jun Zhang Li-Mei Cui Zhe-Ying Song Ya-Qi Wang Yu-Teng Yang Xiang-Kun Zhao Ya-Kui Mou Yu-Mei Li Xi-Cheng Song 

机构地区：[1]School of Clinical Medicine,Weifang Medical University,Weifang 261042,China. [2]Department of Otorhinolaryngology,Head and Neck Surgery,Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital,Qingdao University,Yantai 264000,China. [3]Shandong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases,Yantai 264000,China. [4]Yantai Key Laboratory of Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases,Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital,Yantai 264000,China. [5]The 2nd Medical College of Binzhou Medical University,Yantai 264000,China.

出　　处：《Traditional Medicine Research》2024年第7期25-34,共10页TMR传统医学研究

基　　金：the Taishan Scholar Project(No.ts20190991);the Key R&D Project of Shandong Province(2022CXPT023)。

摘　　要：Background:Traditional Chinese medicine is promising for managing challenging and complex disorders,including cancer,and in particular,saffron is applied in treating various cancer types.However,its potential therapeutic efficacy and active components in managing squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck(HNSCC)remain unclear yet.Methods:Using network pharmacology approaches,active ingredients of saffron,their target genes,and HNSCC-related genes were identified.Enrichment analyses were conducted for determining molecular functions and pathways enriched by genes that overlapped between the saffron target gene set and the HNSCC gene set.Among the four known active ingredients of saffron,crocetin was found to have the strongest inhibitory impact on HNSCC,based on the findings of cell viability and migration assays.Therefore,the potential target genes of crocetin in HNSCC cells were examined using molecular docking experiments and were confirmed by qPCR.Result s:Four active ingredients of saffron and 184 of their target genes were identified.Further,a total of 34 overlapping saffron-/HNSCC-associated targets related to the four active ingredients were screened,and crocetin was chosen for further investigation because it had the strongest inhibitory effect on HNSCC cells.Molecular docking experiments indicated that ESR1 and CCND1 were the target genes of crocetin.These results were confirmed through qPCR analysis,in which crocetin was found to lower the expression of the ESR1 and CCND1 genes in AMC-HN-8 and FaDu cells.Conclusion:According to our results,crocetin is a primary active anti-cancer component of saffron that may have potential in the development of novel HNSCC-treating medications.However,more thorough molecular research is necessary for confirming these results and elucidating the anti-cancer mechanism underlying saffron.

关 键 词：SAFFRON hub genes CROCETIN network pharmacology analysis HNSCC ESR1 CCND1 

分 类 号：R739.91[医药卫生—肿瘤]