Erianin is a major bisbenzyl compound extracted from Dendrobium chrysotoxum Lindl., an important traditional Chinese herb. In recent years, a growing body of evidence has proved the potential
therapeutic effects of
erianin on various
cancers, including
hepatoma,
melanoma,
non-small-cell lung carcinoma,
myelogenous leukemia,
breast cancer, and
osteosarcoma. Especially, the pharmacological activities of
erianin, such as
antioxidant and anticancer activity, have been frequently demonstrated by plenty of studies. In this study, we firstly conducted a systematic review on reported anticancer activity of
erianin. All updated valuable information regarding the underlying action mechanisms of
erianin in specific
cancer was recorded and summarized in this paper. Most importantly, based on the molecular structure of
erianin, its potential molecular targets were analyzed and predicted by means of the SwissTargetPrediction online server (http://www.swisstargetprediction.ch). In the meantime, the potential therapeutic targets of 10 types of
cancers in which
erianin has been proved to have anticancer effects were also predicted via the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim). The overlapping targets may serve as valuable target candidates through which
erianin exerts its anticancer activity. The clinical value of those targets was subsequently evaluated by analyzing their prognostic role in specific
cancer using Kaplan-Meier plotter (http://Kmplot.com/analysis/) and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) (http://gepia.
cancer-pku.cn/). To better assess and verify the binding ability of
erianin with its potential targets, molecular flexible docking was performed using Discovery Studio (DS). The valuable targets obtained from the above analysis and verification were further mapped to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) (http://david.abcc.ncifcrf.gov/) to explore the possible signaling pathways disturbed/regulated by
erianin. Furthermore, the in silico prediction of absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties of
erianin was also performed and provided in this paper. Overall, in this study, we aimed at 1) collecting all experiment-based important information regarding the anticancer effect and pharmacological mechanism of
erianin, 2) providing the predicted therapeutic targets and signaling pathways that
erianin might act on in
cancers, and 3) especially providing in silico ADMET properties of
erianin.