Sicheng Lu

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a prevalent malignant tumor with high incidence and mortality rates, with recurrence being the primary cause of death among patients. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) utilizes a holistic cognitive approach to develop herbal treatment strategies, displaying significant efficacy in slowing tumor progression and improving patients' quality of life. However, discrepancies in herbal prescription strategies arise from variations in clinicians’ syndrome differentiation and experiential knowledge, leading to a lack of systematic understanding of compound prescription compatibility rules. This study aims to identify TCM prescriptions that are effective in preventing or treating CRC recurrence through evidence-supported and clinically applied prescriptions. By employing Apriori association rule mining and graph convolutional network analysis, a core herb spectrum associated with anti-recurrence prescriptions was identified, emphasizing a high-confidence herbal combination for further mechanistic exploration. Subsequent network pharmacology analysis revealed quercetin and kaempferol as representative active compounds with PTGS2 identified as a potential key target. Molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation, public database analysis, and in vitro experiments provided initial evidence supporting their interaction and biological effects in CRC cells. Overall, this study reveals the compatibility characteristics of TCM prescriptions for preventing CRC recurrence and offers a scientific foundation for the continued use of TCM-based strategies in managing CRC recurrence.

Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the causal relationships between colorectal cancer (CRC) and prevalent psychiatric disorders using a two-sample Mendelian randomization approach and to provide evidence supporting the gut-brain axis (GBA) hypothesis. Methods: Utilizing publicly available GWAS datasets, we explored the connections between CRC and various psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. We applied three statistical analyses: inverse variance weighting, MR-Egger, and median weighting. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to ensure the reliability and validity of our results. Results: The inverse variance weighting analysis revealed no significant associations between CRC incidence and depression (OR=0.995, 95% CI: 0.995-1.000, P=0.090), anxiety (OR=1.001, 95% CI: 1.000-1.001, P=0.099), or schizophrenia (OR=1.003, 95% CI: 0.960-1.047, P=0.899). Conversely, a significant inverse relationship was found with bipolar disorder (OR=0.937, 95% CI: 0.8919~0.9849, P=0.010). Conclusion: Our study did not find causal connections between CRC and the psychiatric conditions of depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia. However, the inverse causal relationship between CRC and bipolar disorder highlights the role of the GBA, offering novel insights into the relationship between gastrointestinal cancer and mental health.