The target proteins phosphoglycerate kinase 2 (PGK2), glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD2)GPD2 and glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI) were screened by combining transcriptome, proteomics and reverse docking, then, we. We detected the binding constant of the active compound using microscale thermophoresis (MST). It was found that esculetin bound well with three potential target proteins.

The results of this study demonstrated that esculetin can affect the glucose metabolism by binding to glycolytic proteins, thus playing an anti-tumor role, and the pathway comprising these proteins which have direct interactions are a potential novel targets for tumor treatment by esculetin.