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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1443648
This article is part of the Research Topic Bridging Traditional and Modern Medicine: The Role of Botanicals in Healthcare View all articles

Mechanistic Exploration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Regulation on Tumor Immune Microenvironment in the Treatment of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Based on Citespace and Bioinformatics Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Dandan Feng Dandan Feng 1Dongqing PU Dongqing PU 2Jinlu Ren Jinlu Ren 3Ming Liu Ming Liu 2Xiaohui Sun Xiaohui Sun 2Zhen Zhang Zhen Zhang 4Jingwei Li Jingwei Li 2*
  • 1 First College of Clinical Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
  • 2 Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
  • 3 Shandong Xiandai University, Jinan, China
  • 4 Innovation Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive subtype of breast cancer, characterized by frequent recurrence, metastasis, and poor survival outcomes despite chemotherapy-based treatments. This study aims to investigate the mechanisms by which Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) modulates the tumor immune microenvironment in TNBC, utilizing CiteSpace and bioinformatics analysis.We employed CiteSpace to analyze treatment hotspots and key TCM formulations, followed by bioinformatics analysis to identify the main active components, targets, associated pathways, and their clinical implications in TNBC treatment.Results: CiteSpace analysis highlighted key TCM formulations, including Sanhuang Decoction. Network pharmacology identified major bioactive components such as Mutatochrome, Physcion diglucoside, Procyanidin B-5,3'-O-gallate, gallic acid-3-O-(6'-O-galloyl)-glucoside, and isomucronulatol-7,2'-di-O-glucosiole, with core targets including Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 1 (MAPK1), Janus Kinase 2 (JAK2), and Lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase (LCK). These targets were found to be involved in immune regulation, particularly the modulation of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells. Additionally, core targets were associated with improved recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in TNBC patients.The therapeutic effects of TCM in TNBC primarily involve immune modulation within the tumor microenvironment, particularly through the regulation of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells.

    Keywords: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Immune Regulation, Citespace, Bioinformatics analysis, Tumor microenvironments (TME)

    Received: 08 Aug 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Feng, PU, Ren, Liu, Sun, Zhang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jingwei Li, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China

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