Farzaei Mohammad Hosein, Farzaei Fatemeh, Abdollahi Mohammad, Abbasabadi Zahra, Abdolghaffari Amir Hossein, Mehraban Bahman
Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Medical Biology Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
J Pharm Pharmacol. 2016 Oct;68(10):1233-48. doi: 10.1111/jphp.12606. Epub 2016 Jul 15.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease, which affects synovial tissue in multiple joints. Although conventional treatments of RA commonly alleviate the symptoms, high incidence of adverse reactions leads to research tendency towards complementary and alternative medicine. As various medicinal plants are traditionally used for the management of symptomatologies associated with RA in Persian medicine, we reviewed medicinal literature to confirm their efficacy in the management of RA.
Scientific evidence revealed that traditional medicaments exert beneficial effects on RA through several cellular mechanisms including downregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6 and NF-κB, suppression of oxidative stress, inhibition of cartilage degradation with destructive metalloproteinases and enhancement of antioxidant performance. Various active constituents from different chemical categories including flavonols, lignans, coumarins, terpenes, glycosylflavons, dihydroflavonols, phytoestrogens, sesquiterpene lactones, anthraquinones, alkaloids and thymoquinones have been isolated from the medicinal plants.
The pharmacological mechanisms of the medicinal plants traditionally used for RA in Persian medicine are discussed in the current review. Further investigations are mandatory to focus on bioefficacy of these phytochemicals for finding novel natural drugs.
类风湿性关节炎（RA）是一种慢性、炎症性自身免疫疾病，会影响多个关节的滑膜组织。尽管RA的传统治疗通常能缓解症状，但不良反应的高发生率促使人们倾向于研究补充和替代医学。由于在波斯医学中，各种药用植物传统上被用于治疗与RA相关的症状，我们查阅了医学文献以证实它们在治疗RA方面的疗效。
科学证据表明，传统药物通过多种细胞机制对RA产生有益作用，包括下调促炎细胞因子如TNF-α、IL-6和NF-κB，抑制氧化应激，抑制具有破坏性的金属蛋白酶对软骨的降解以及增强抗氧化性能。已从药用植物中分离出不同化学类别的多种活性成分，包括黄酮醇、木脂素、香豆素、萜类、糖基黄酮、二氢黄酮醇、植物雌激素、倍半萜内酯、蒽醌、生物碱和百里醌。
本综述讨论了波斯医学中传统用于治疗RA的药用植物的药理机制。必须进一步开展研究，聚焦于这些植物化学物质的生物功效，以寻找新型天然药物。
