Elemene Injection Suppresses Pancreatic Cancer Progress through Regulating Cell Adhesion: A Research Based upon Network Pharmacology and Verification Test

This study investigates the potential effects of elemene injection on pancreatic cancer using network pharmacology and experimental validation. GEO database were used to acquire genes which are differentially expressed between pancreatic cancer tissue and normal tissue. The vigorous energetic ingredients were identified in research and the object genes were obtained from BATMAN-TCM. The key targets and signaling pathways of elemene injection were identified using compound- target network analysis, protein-protein interaction network analysis, and Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis. in vitro experiments were carried out to confirm the accuracy of the network pharmacology predictions. Two hundred and eleven target genes that may be involved in Elemene's impact on pancreatic cancer were identified. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to determine the two active mixtures and one key target. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses indicated that elemene injection exerts therapeutic effects on pancreatic cancer, regulating the cell adhesion by ECM-receptor interaction pathway. The experiments verified that elemene injection suppressed the growth and movement of pancreatic cancer cell lines Panc02 and MiaPaca-2 and the mechanism is related to regulating ECM-receptor interaction pathway-related genes. FN1 was identified as core targets by bioinformatics analysis. The FN1 was downregulated by elemene injection and was validated by QPCR and Western Blot. The findings of the current study emphasized that elemene injection might control cell attachment, decrease metastasis, and suppresses pancreatic cancer progress. FN1 might be a therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer.