<?xml version="1.1" encoding="utf-8"?>
<article xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/1.1/xsd/JATS-journalpublishing1-mathml3.xsd" dtd-version="1.1" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JMDS</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>Journal of Medicines Development Sciences</journal-title></journal-title-group><issn>2382-6363</issn><eissn>2382-6371</eissn><publisher><publisher-name>WHIOCE PUBLISHING PTE. LTD.</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.18063/JMDS.v11i2.2008</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Article</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title>Experimental Study on the Effect of Modified Tianma Granules on Colorectal Cancer Cell Line HCT116</title><url>https://artdesignp.com/journal/JMDS/11/2/10.18063/JMDS.v11i2.2008</url><author>ChenJialu,DengSonghua</author><pub-date pub-type="publication-year"><year>2026</year></pub-date><volume>11</volume><issue>2</issue><history><date date-type="pub"><published-time>2026-06-23</published-time></date></history><abstract>Objective:&amp;nbsp;To investigate the mechanism of modified Tianma Granules (mTMG) in inducing apoptosis of colorectal cancer HCT116 cells through regulating the PTEN/PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway and enhancing NKG2D expression based on the "toxicity-deficiency" theory of traditional Chinese medicine. Methods:&amp;nbsp;Drug-containing sera were prepared from SD rats administered with mTMG formulations: the blank group (normal saline), detoxification group (detoxification components), tonifying deficiency group (tonic components), and original prescription group (all components). HCT116 cells were treated with 20% drug-containing serum for 48 h. Apoptosis was detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining flow cytometry. CD56 and CD107a expression in NK92 cells were measured by flow cytometry. PTEN and NKG2D protein levels were determined by Western blot. Results:&amp;nbsp;The apoptosis rate in the original prescription group (11.60%&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;1.40%) was significantly higher than that in the blank control group (1.70%&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.78%) and blank serum group (2.01%&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.04%) (P&amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;&amp;nbsp;0.05). PTEN expression (0.86&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.11) and NKG2D expression (0.64&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.08) in the original prescription group were significantly higher than those in the blank control group (0.42&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.05 and 0.39&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.04) (P&amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;&amp;nbsp;0.05). CD56 (5.22%&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.34%) and CD107a (15.56%&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.49%) expression in the detoxification group were significantly higher than those in the blank control group (1.32%&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.33% and 5.48%&amp;nbsp;&amp;plusmn;&amp;nbsp;0.42%) (P&amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;&amp;nbsp;0.05). Conclusion:&amp;nbsp;mTMG can induce HCT116 cell apoptosis by up-regulating PTEN to inhibit the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and enhancing NKG2D to activate NK cell cytotoxicity, with synergistic effects between detoxification and tonifying deficiency components.</abstract><keywords>Tianma Granules,HCT116,PTEN,NKG2D,apoptosis</keywords></article-meta></front><body/><back><ref-list><ref id="B1" content-type="article"><label>1</label><element-citation publication-type="journal"><p>[1] Baidoun F, Elshiwy K, Elkeraie Y, et al., 2021, Colorectal cancer epidemiology: recent trends and impact on outcomes. Curr Drug Targets, 22(9): 998-1009.
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