Metabolomics Analysis Reveals Interaction of Base-Line Chemotherapy and Shiyiwei Shenqi Tablets in Breast Cancer Treatment

Shiyiwei Shenqi Tablet (SSTs) has been widely used for treatment of different types of cancer including breast cancer. SST has drawn more and more interest due to the low rate of side effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the metabolites in serums of breast cancer patients who received base-line chemotherapy only or combination treatment with SST. An untargeted metabolomics method was developed to investigate the alteration of metabolism in patients' serums using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography/Q-exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometry. The patients were separated based on the metabolomics data, and further analyses showed that SST treatment can affect the metabolism of glucose, fatty acid, bile acid and amino acid. In particular, SST treatment significantly reduced some short peptides which are potential tumor neoantigens. This study may provide novel insights into the mechanism underlying interaction between SST and base-line chemotherapy in terms of affecting metabolic pathways and thereby changing metabolic products, which might shed new light for clinical medication.

Automated summary

This study utilized an untargeted metabolomics approach to investigate the impact of SST treatment on the metabolism of breast cancer patients, revealing significant alterations in glucose, fatty acid, bile acid, and amino acid metabolism. Particularly, SST treatment was found to reduce levels of potential tumor neoantigen short peptides, shedding light on the mechanism underlying SST's interaction with base-line chemotherapy in affecting metabolic pathways.