{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T00:31:29Z","timestamp":1777681889322,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,12]],"date-time":"2022-08-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1660262400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pharmacol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Melanoma is a commonly malignant cutaneous tumor in China. <jats:italic>Astragalus propinquus<\/jats:italic> Schischkin <jats:italic>and Pinellia pedatisecta<\/jats:italic> Schott (A&amp;amp;P) have been clinically used as adjunctive drugs in the treatment of malignant melanoma. However, the effect and mechanism of A&amp;amp;P on melanoma have yet to be explored. The current investigation seeks to characterize the active components of A&amp;amp;P and their potential roles in treating malignant melanoma using network pharmacology and <jats:italic>in vitro<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic> experiments. We first used the traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology (TCMSP) database and high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS\/MS) to identify a total of 13 effective compounds within A&amp;amp;P. 70 common genes were obtained by matching 487 potential genes of A&amp;amp;P with 464 melanoma-related genes, and then we built up protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of these 70 genes, followed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses. The results revealed that A&amp;amp;P might influence the pathobiology of melanoma through the PI3K\/Akt pathway. Molecular docking also confirmed that higher content of ingredients in A&amp;amp;P, including hederagenin, quercetin, beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol, had a strong binding activity (affinity &amp;lt; \u22125\u00a0kcal\/mol) with the core targets AKT1, MAPK3 and ESR1. Furthermore, we confirmed A&amp;amp;P could inhibit melanoma cells proliferation and induce cells apoptosis through suppressing the PI3K\/Akt signaling pathway by <jats:italic>in vitro<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>in vivo<\/jats:italic> xenograft model experiments. These findings indicate that A&amp;amp;P may function as a useful therapy for melanoma through the PI3K\/Akt pathway.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2022.895738","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,12]],"date-time":"2022-08-12T05:19:10Z","timestamp":1660281550000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Investigation of the mechanism of the anti-cancer effects of Astragalus propinquus Schischkin and Pinellia pedatisecta Schott (A&amp;P) on melanoma via network pharmacology and experimental verification"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Fang","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Juan","family":"Bai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Feng","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yanli","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ning","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yaqi","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jin","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wanbao","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Liting","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"723","DOI":"10.1111\/jcmm.12059","article-title":"Akt-mediated anti-apoptotic effects of substance P in Anti-Fas-induced apoptosis of human tenocytes","volume":"17","author":"Backman","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. 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