Mechanistic evidence for dibutyl phthalate as an environmental trigger for inflammatory bowel disease

Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is a ubiquitous pollutant, but its molecular link to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is undefined. We employed an integrative network toxicology framework, combining DBP target databases with IBD patient transcriptomics to address this gap. A computational pipeline using machine learning and molecular docking predicted a core six-gene signature (KYNU, PCK1, LCN2, CDC25B, EPHB4, SORD). We validated these predictions in human colonic epithelial cells (NCM460). DBP exposure induced a pro-inflammatory state and upregulated the core genes, with LCN2 showing the strongest response. Crucially, siRNA-mediated silencing of LCN2 significantly attenuated the DBP-induced inflammatory response, establishing it as a key functional mediator. Our findings provide direct mechanistic insight into how DBP can promote intestinal inflammation. The functional validation of LCN2 confirms the predictive power of our integrated approach and identifies a panel of target genes for future IBD investigation and environmental risk assessment.