Jiawei Xiaoyao Wan treatment shows a dual therapeutic effect on breast cancer with depression by interacting with multiple targets and significantly regulating neurotransmitter and inflammatory levels.
The methodology used in this research ground itself in a combination of network pharmacology and in vivo experimental verification. The investigators utilized liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry to characterize the chemical constituents of Jiawei Xiaoyao Wan (JXW). Predictive databases were utilized to identify targets related to the identified constituents and to screen for breast cancer and depression targets. Using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery, the researchers performed Gene Ontology annotation and KEGG enrichment analysis. A mouse model with breast cancer complicated with depression, induced by chronic restraint stress, was adopted for experimental verification.
The results revealed a total of 108 components in JXW and suggested that, by network pharmacology analysis, there were significant overlaps in compound targets between JXW and breast cancer, and depression targets. In vivo testing supported that JXW effectively soothes depressive symptoms and inhibits tumor progression in the mouse model. The research inferred that the therapeutic effects of JXW might be through regulating neurotransmitter and inflammatory levels in subjects and that the JAK2/STAT3 pathway plays a big role in this process.
