Network pharmacology-based strategy to investigate the bioactive ingredients and molecular mechanism of Evodia rutaecarpa in colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND: Evodia rutaecarpa, a traditional herbal drug, is widely used as an analgesic and antiemetic. Many studies have confirmed that Evodia rutaecarpa has an anticancer effect. Here, our study explored the bioactive ingredients in Evodia rutaecarpa acting on colorectal cancer (CRC) by utilizing network pharmacology. METHODS: We clarified the effective ingredients and corresponding targets of Evodia rutaecarpa. CRC-related genes were obtained from several public databases to extract candidate targets. Candidate targets were used to construct a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network for screening out core targets with topological analysis, and then we selected the core targets and corresponding ingredients for molecular docking. Cell proliferation experiments and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) verified the anticancer effect of the bioactive ingredients and the results of molecular docking. RESULTS: Our study obtained a total of 24 bioactive ingredients and 100 candidate targets after intersecting ingredient-related targets and CRC-related genes, and finally, 10 genes—TNF, MAPK1, TP53, AKT1, RELA, RB1, ESR1, JUN, CCND1 and MYC—were screened out as core targets. In vitro experiments suggested that rutaecarpine excelled isorhamnetin, evodiamine and quercetin in the inhibition of CRC cells and the release of TNF-α was altered with the concentrations of rutaecarpine. Molecular docking showed that rutaecarpine could effectively bind with TNF-α. CONCLUSION: The pairs of ingredients-targets in Evodia rutaecarpa acted on CRC were excavated. Rutaecarpine as a bioactive ingredient of Evodia rutaecarpamight effectively inhibit the proliferation of CRC cells by suppressing TNF-α. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12906-023-04254-8.