School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China; Faculty of Basic Medicine, Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
Mol Immunol. 2018 Sep;101:210-220. doi: 10.1016/j.molimm.2018.06.012. Epub 2018 Jul 5.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by cellular infiltration into the joints and cartilage destruction. Neutrophils play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of RA. Triptolide (TP) is a bioactive compound derived from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, which has been used in folk medicine as a treatment for a variety of inflammatory disorders, including RA, for many centuries. Previous studies have shown that TP possesses anti-arthritic activity. However, the anti-arthritic mechanism of TP remains to be fully defined. In the present study, we used the adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) murine model of RA to investigate the impact of TP on RA and neutrophil function. TP alleviated AA by reducing neutrophil recruitment and suppressing the expression of interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-α in vivo. TP also suppressed the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in neutrophils, promoted neutrophil apoptosis and inhibited the migration, NETosis and autophagy of neutrophils in vitro. Based on our findings, TP effectively ameliorates RA by down-regulating neutrophil inflammatory functions, indicating that TP represents a potential therapeutic agent for RA.
类风湿关节炎（RA）是一种慢性自身免疫性疾病，其特征是细胞浸润关节和软骨破坏。中性粒细胞在 RA 的发病机制中起着至关重要的作用。雷公藤红素（TP）是一种从雷公藤中提取的生物活性化合物，在民间医学中已被用于治疗多种炎症性疾病，包括 RA，已有数百年的历史。先前的研究表明，TP 具有抗关节炎活性。然而，TP 的抗关节炎机制仍有待充分阐明。在本研究中，我们使用佐剂诱导的关节炎（AA）RA 小鼠模型来研究 TP 对 RA 和中性粒细胞功能的影响。TP 通过减少中性粒细胞募集并抑制体内白细胞介素-6 和肿瘤坏死因子-α的表达来缓解 AA。TP 还抑制中性粒细胞中促炎细胞因子的表达，促进中性粒细胞凋亡，并抑制中性粒细胞的迁移、NETosis 和自噬体外。基于我们的发现，TP 通过下调中性粒细胞的炎症功能有效改善 RA，表明 TP 是一种治疗 RA 的潜在治疗剂。
