Bioinformatics exploration into potential mechanisms of Calamus draco for colorectal cancer treatment.

As one of the cancer types with the highest incidence rates, colorectal cancer (CRC) would benefit from treatments with fewer side effects and reduced treatment-resistant potential. One of the options is to harness the anti-CRC potential of natural products. Previous studies have shown that Calamus draco exudate, dragon's blood, has anticancer activity in liver cancer and acute myeloid leukemia, but its bioactivity has not been studied in CRC. Here we conduct a bioinformatics study based on network pharmacology to explore the anti-CRC potential and mechanism of C. draco -derived compounds. The bioinformatics pipeline is composed of compound and target collection, biological network evaluation, and enrichment analysis. We found that there are 43 bioactive compounds from C. draco targeting 91 CRC-related targets, of which most compounds target MEN1, PTGS2, and IDH1. Further analyses show that the targets of C. draco are involved in the cellular response to hypoxia. By inhibiting those targets, C. draco bioactive compounds can potentially hinder angiogenesis and increase treatment response efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]