Integrated network pharmacology and cellular assay reveal the biological mechanisms of Limonium sinense (Girard) Kuntze against breast cancer
Limonium Sinense (Girard) Kuntze (L. sinense) has been widely used for the treatment of anaemia, bleeding, cancer, and other disorders in Chinese folk medicine. The aim of this study is to predict the therapeutic effects of L. sinense and investigate the potential mechanisms using integrated network pharmacology methods and in vitro cellular experiments. A total of 15 active ingredients of L. sinense and their corresponding 389 targets were obtained. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the biological effects of L. sinense were primarily associated with Pathways in cancer. DisGeNET enrichment analysis highlighted the potential role of L. sinense in the treatment of breast cancer. Cellular experiments demonstrated that the L. sinense ethanol extract (LSE) exhibited a significant growth inhibitory effect on multiple breast cancer cell lines in both 2D and 3D cultures. This study predicts the biological activities of L. sinense and demonstrates the inhibitory effect of LSE on breast cancer cells, highlighting the potential application of L. sinense in cancer treatment. Overall design: MDA-MB-468 cells were treated with Limonium Sinense Ethanol extract (LSE) for 48 hours at 500 µg/mL, and untreated cells were used as control.