Bioinformatic Analysis of the Anti-Cancer Effects of Safranal via the p53 Signaling Pathway in Cervical Cancer Cell Lines

Cervical cancer is a widespread type of cancer among women worldwide, caused by an HPV virus infection. In recent years, researchers have focused on developing new targeted treatment approaches to reduce or eliminate side effects caused by standard treatment methods used in clinics. Our research aimed to investigate the p53 signalling pathways expressed in the genomic profile of HeLa and C-4 I using RNA sequencing after applying safranal. The goal is to explore the biological processes, molecular functions, and genes involved in that pathway.

To analyze the genome profile, we applied Safranal to the cervical cancer cell lines HeLa and C-4 I for 24 h. A sequencing library was created using the RNAs isolated at the end of the incubation period. After sequencing with the DNBEQ library, we analyzed p53 signaling pathways, KEGG pathways, Gene Ontology projects, cluster heat maps, and protein--protein interactions.

Based on KEGG and GO ontology, we found that safranal down-regulated the p53 signaling pathway in Hela and C-4 I cells. In total, 11 and 9 genes of HeLa and C- 4 I, respectively, are involved in this pathway. We also observed safranal-induced cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase and induced apoptosis through extrinsic and mitochondrial pathways. Furthermore, we found that safranal inhibits angiogenesis and metastasis mechanism processes. Additionally, the effect of safranal on DNA has been discovered through the activation of DNA damage repair mechanisms. Finally, we used heat map cluster analysis to demonstrate the differential expression of genes in control and safranal-treated cells, and their functions were determined using the KEGG map.

In conclusion, these data showed that the application of safranal leads to the downregulation of p53 signaling pathway, which showed its potential anti-cancer effects on cervical cancer cell lines, HeLa and C- 4 I