Background:Bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC) ranks second in the incidence of
urogenital system tumors, and the treatment of BUC needs to be improved. Puerarin, a traditional
Chinese medicine (TCM), has been shown to have various effects such as anti-cancer effects, the
promotion of angiogenesis, and anti-inflammation. This study investigates the effects of puerarin
on BUC and its molecular mechanisms.Methods:Through GeneChip experiments, we obtained differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and analyzed these DEGs using the Ingenuity® Pathway Analysis (IPA®), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) pathway enrichment analyses. The Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK8) assay was used to verify the inhibitory effect of puerarin on the proliferation of BUC T24 cells. String combined with Cytoscape® was used to create the Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network, and the MCC algorithm in cytoHubba plugin was used to screen key genes. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA®) was used to verify the correlation between key genes and cell proliferation.Results:A total of 1617 DEGs were obtained by GeneChip. Based on the DEGs, the IPA® and
pathway enrichment analysis showed they were mainly enriched in cancer cell proliferation and
migration. CCK8 experiments proved that puerarin inhibited the proliferation of BUC T24 cells,
and its IC50 at 48 hours was 218μmol/L. Through PPI and related algorithms, 7 key genes were
obtained: ITGA1, LAMA3, LAMB3, LAMA4, PAK2, DMD, and UTRN. GSEA showed that these
key genes were highly correlated with BUC cell proliferation. Survival curves showed that
ITGA1 upregulation was associated with poor prognosis of BUC patientsConclusion:Our findings support the potential antitumor activity of puerarin in BUC. To the
best of our knowledge, bioinformatics investigation suggests that puerarin demonstrates
anticancer mechanisms via the upregulation of ITGA1, LAMA3 and 4, LAMB3, PAK2, DMD,
and UTRN, all of which are involved in the proliferation and migration of bladder urothelial cancer
cells.