Combination of metabolomics and network pharmacology analysis to decipher the mechanisms of total flavonoids of Litchi seed against prostate cancer

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the underlying mechanism of total flavonoids of Litchi seed (TFLS) in treating prostate cancer (PCa).

Methods: Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), EdU incorporation assay, trypan blue dye assay and colony formation assay were employed to evaluate the effect of TFLS on PCa in vitro. The xenograft mouse model was established to explore the anti-tumour effect of TFLS in vivo. Alterations in the metabolic profiles of the PC3 cells and mouse serum were obtained by untargeted metabolomics. Combination with metabolomics analysis and network pharmacology strategies, the potential targets were predicted and further validated by RT-qPCR.

Key findings: TFLS attenuated PCa progression both in vitro and in vivo. Metabolomics results yielded from cells and serum indicated that the anti-cancer effect of TFLS was correlated with synergistic modulation of five common metabolic pathways including glycerophospholipid metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, tryptophan metabolism and steroid biosynthesis. Using in silico prediction and RT-qPCR analysis, we further revealed that TFLS exerted anti-PCa activities via regulating the expressions of nine genes, including MAOA, ACHE, ALDH2, AMD1, ARG1, PLA2G10, PLA2G1B, FDFT1 and SQLE.

Conclusions: TFLS suppressed tumour proliferation in PCa, which may be associated with regulating lipid and amino acid metabolisms.

Keywords: metabolomics; network pharmacology; prostate cancer; total flavonoids of Litchi seed.