Cancer Chemo-Preventive Effects of Red Propolis: a System Biology Approach

Propolis is a natural product of honey bees that is characterized by therapeutic effects on diverse diseases. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of propolis effects on tumor, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis of proteome data of Hep-2 cells treated with red propolis was conducted.

Cytoscape V 3.9.1 and its plug-ins evaluated the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in terms of network construction and the corresponding topological features.

The results implied that six hub-bottlenecks including ACTB, GAPDH, HSP90AA1, HSPA8, HSP90AB1, and HSPA5 were present in the PPI network; however, only the last central protein was among DEPs. ClueGO+ CluePedia identified five related biological processes and three action types of their connections. Results refer to anticancer property of red propolis.

The proposed crucial proteins and their linked biological processes may represent as key players in the anticancer underlying mechanism of red propolis.