Identification of molecular mechanism of the anti-lung cancer effect of Jin Ning Fang using network pharmacology and its experimental verification

A549 cells were treated with JNF for 48 h. CCK-8 assay showed that cell viability in JNF was significantly lower than in the control group (100.00 ± 1.47 vs. 82.59 ± 2.81, P &lt; 0.01), suggesting that JNF observably inhibited the proliferation of lung cancer cells. Meanwhile, JNF increased the apoptosis rate in A549 cells compared to that in the control group (0.74 ± 0.03 vs. 2.20 ± 0.14, P &lt; 0.01), indicating that JNF treatment may induce apoptosis in lung cancer cells. Next, the expression level of hub genes identified from pharmacological network was detedcted by qPCR analysis. Result showed that JNF could significantly decrease the expression level of <i>FDPS</i>, <i>PIM1</i>, <i>VCAM1</i>, <i>SLC29A1</i>, <i>NQO1</i>, and <i>ESR1</i> (all P &lt; 0.05), while JNF markedly increased the mRNA levels of <i>AR</i> and <i>ANPEP</i> (all P &lt; 0.05).