Tianfoshen oral liquid: a CFDA approved clinical traditional Chinese medicine, normalizes major cellular pathways disordered during colorectal carcinogenesis

// Siliang Wang 1 , Hengbin Wang 3 , Yin Lu 1, 2 1 Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Pharmacology and Safety Evaluation of Chinese Materia Medica, School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210023, P. R. China 2 Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Prevention and Treatment of Tumor, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210023, P. R. China 3 Changshu Leiyunshang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Changshu, 215500, P. R. China Correspondence to: Yin Lu, email: profyinlu@163.com Keywords: Tianfoshen oral liquid, colorectal cancer, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, angiogenesis Received: November 02, 2016      Accepted: January 09, 2017      Published: January 16, 2017 ABSTRACT Colorectal cancer remains the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide, suggesting exploration of novel therapeutic avenues may be useful. In this study, therefore, we determined whether Tianfoshen oral liquid, a Chinese traditional medicine that has been used to treat non-small cell lung cancer, would be therapeutically beneficial for colorectal cancer patients. Our data show that Tianfoshen oral liquid effectively inhibits growth of colorectal cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo . We further employed a comprehensive strategy that included chemoinformatics, bioinformatics and network biology methods to unravel novel insights into the active compounds of Tianfoshen oral liquid and to identify the common therapeutic targets and processes for colorectal cancer treatment. We identified 276 major candidate targets for Tianfoshen oral liquid that are central to colorectal cancer progression. Gene enrichment analysis showed that these targets were associated with cell cycle, apoptosis, cancer-related angiogenesis, and chronic inflammation and related signaling pathways. We also validated experimentally the inhibitory effects of Tianfoshen oral liquid on these pathological processes, both in vitro and in vivo . In addition, we demonstrated that Tianfoshen oral liquid suppressed multiple relevant key players that sustain and promote colorectal cancer, which is suggests the potential therapeutic efficacy of Tianfoshen oral liquid in future colorectal cancer treatments.