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Identifying potential pharmacological targets and mechanisms of vitamin D for hepatocellular carcinoma and COVID-19.
- Source :
-
Frontiers in immunology [Front Immunol] 2022 Aug 17; Vol. 13, pp. 985781. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Aug 17 (Print Publication: 2022). - Publication Year :
- 2022
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Abstract
- Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a severe pandemic that has posed an unprecedented challenge to public health worldwide. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common digestive system malignancy, with high aggressiveness and poor prognosis. HCC patients may be vulnerable to COVID-19. Since the anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and antiviral effects of vitamin D, we aimed to investigate the possible therapeutic effects and underlying action mechanisms of vitamin D in COVID-19 and HCC in this study. By using a range of bioinformatics and network pharmacology analyses, we identified many COVID-19/HCC target genes and analyzed their prognostic significance in HCC patients. Further, a risk score model with good predictive performance was developed to evaluate the prognosis of HCC patients with COVID-19 based on these target genes. Moreover, we identified seven possible pharmacological targets of vitamin D against COVID-19/HCC, including HMOX1, MB, TLR4, ALB, TTR, ACTA1 and RBP4. And we revealed the biological functions, signaling pathways and TF-miRNA coregulatory network of vitamin D in COVID-19/HCC. The enrichment analysis revealed that vitamin D could help in treating COVID-19/HCC effects through regulation of immune response, epithelial structure maintenance, regulation of chemokine and cytokine production involved in immune response and anti-inflammatory action. Finally, the molecular docking analyses were performed and showed that vitamin D possessed effective binding activity in COVID-19. Overall, we revealed the possible molecular mechanisms and pharmacological targets of vitamin D for treating COVID-19/HCC for the first time. But these findings need to be further validated in actual HCC patients with COVID-19 and need further investigation to confirm.<br />Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.<br /> (Copyright © 2022 Huang, Yuan, Chen, Xu, Xiao, Wang, Qin and Liu.)
- Subjects :
- Humans
Vitamin D therapeutic use
Molecular Docking Simulation
Toll-Like Receptor 4 metabolism
Vitamins therapeutic use
Antiviral Agents therapeutic use
Cytokines metabolism
Retinol-Binding Proteins, Plasma
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular pathology
Liver Neoplasms pathology
COVID-19 complications
MicroRNAs genetics
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1664-3224
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Frontiers in immunology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 36275701
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.985781