Antitumor effects and compatibility mechanism of Hedyotis Diffusa-Sculellaria Barbata herb pair

OBJECTIVE Hedyotis diffusa Willd and Scutellaria barbata D Don are most commonly used herb pair for cancer treatment in traditional Chinese medicine. This study aimed to evaluated the in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects and the compatibility mechanisms of Hedyotis diffusa-Sculellaria barbata herb pair. METHODS Hedyotic diffusa extract, Scutellariae Barbatae extract, and herb pair extract were prepared and the component were detected by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS. The effects of different concentrations of Hedyotic diffusa extract, Scutellariae Barbatae extract, and herb pair extract were detected using MTS assay. The in vivo antitumor effects were evaluated in Panc28 pancreatic cells bearing nude mice model. The compatibility mechanism of Hedyotis diffusa-Sculellaria barbata herb pair were evaluated based on the network pharmacology, using TCMSP, Cytoscape 3.6.1 software,and DAVID 6.8. The anticancer mechanism were further validated in vitro. RESULTS Both the MTS and in vivo results showed that herb pair extract showed more obvious inhibitory effects on cancer cells compared to each individual. A total of 37 active components were selected from Hedyotis diffusa and Sculellaria barbata, 33 kinds of active ingredients are involved in their anti-tumor effects. 58 cancer-related targets and 66 KEGG pathways were identified. The potential targets for the herb pair might be prostaglandin G/H synthase 2(PTGS2), HSP90, EGFR, 72 ku type Ⅳ collagenase, PPAR-γ, et al. In vitro validation result showed that compatibility mechanisms was related with HSP90, EGFR related pathways. CONCLUSION The result of the study preliminarily verified the basic anti-tumor pharmacological effects of Hedyotis diffusa-Sculellaria barbata herb pair, and lays a solid foundation for further studies on the anti-tumor mechanism of the herbal pair.