Integrating Network Pharmacology and Experimental Validation to Decipher the Mechanism of Action of

Purpose: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy is an important means to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), Methods: The HQBZ-Compound-Target-HCC network and HQBZ-HCC transcriptional regulatory network were constructed to screen the core active compound components and targets of HQBZ therapy for HCC. Molecular docking techniques are used to verify the stability of binding core active compound components to targets. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis were used to explore the signaling pathway of HQBZ in HCC treatment, the mechanism of HQBZ treatment of HCC was verified based on in vivo H22 tumor bearing mice and in vitro cell experiments. Results: Network pharmacology and molecular docking studies showed that HQBZ treatment of HCC was related to the targeted regulation of IL-6 and STAT3 by the active compound biatractylolide, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis suggest that HQBZ may play a role in the treatment of HCC through IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway. In vitro experiment results proved that HQBZ could regulate IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway transduction on CD8 Conclusion: This study found that HQBZ may play a therapeutic role in HCC by targeting IL-6 and STAT3 through biatractylolide, its mechanism of action is related to regulating IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway, reversing T cell failure and increasing tumor infiltration CD8