Pharmacological network study on the effect of 6-gingerol on cervical cancer using computerized databases
Cervical cancer (CC) is the most frequent cancer in the female population worldwide. Although there are treatments available, they are ineffective and cause adverse effects. 6-gingerol is an active component in ginger with anticancer activity. This research aims to discover the mechanism by which 6-gingerol act as an anticancer agent on CC through a pharmacological network using bioinformatics databases. From MalaCard, Swiss Target Prediction, Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform, we obtained the target genes for 6-gingerol and CC and matched them. We got 26 genes and analyzed them in ShinyGO-0.76.3 and DAVID-Bioinformatics Resources. Then, we generated a protein-protein interaction network in Cytoscape and obtained 12 hub genes. Hub genes were analyzed in Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis and TISIDB. In addition, molecular docking studies were performed between target proteins with 6-gingerol using SwissDock database. Finally, molecular dynamics studies for three proteins with the lowest interaction energy were implemented using Gromacs software. According to gene ontology results, 6-gingerol is involved in processes of apoptosis, cell cycle, and protein kinase complexes, affecting mitochondria and pathways related to HPV infection.
