Deng YongQi, Luo Hui, Shu Jun, Shu Haiyang, Lu Cheng, Zhao Ning, Geng Yun, He Xiaojuan, Lu Aiping
1Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
2School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
Chin Med. 2020 Mar 30;15:30. doi: 10.1186/s13020-020-00311-3. eCollection 2020.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by synovitis. Pien Tze Huang (PZH) is a Chinese patent medicine with anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. However, whether PZH could be used in RA therapy is still unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the therapeutic effect and the potential mechanism of PZH on collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice.
Male DBA/1J mice were used to establish an animal model of CIA and then treated with different doses of PZH for 4 weeks. The therapeutic effect of PZH on CIA mice was evaluated by arthritis score, pathological staining, and detecting the levels of inflammatory factors in serum and joints. To investigate its possible mechanism, the activity of NF-κB signaling pathway, NLRP3 inflammasome and the level of A20 were detected.
The results showed that PZH could alleviate the erythema and swelling of hind paws of CIA mice, improve the pathological conditions of joint and decrease the production of IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-17 in serum and joints. Furthermore, PZH could significantly inhibit the activity of NF-κB signaling pathway and NLRP3 inflammasome in the ankle joint of CIA mice compared with the model group. It also increased the level of A20 in the ankle joint of CIA mice.
This study indicated that PZH could alleviate the joint inflammation of CIA mice, and the mechanism might be related to the regulation of NF-κB signaling pathway and NLRP3 inflammasome.
类风湿关节炎（RA）是一种以滑膜炎为特征的自身免疫性疾病。片仔癀（PZH）是一种具有抗炎和免疫调节作用的中成药。然而，PZH是否可用于RA治疗仍不清楚。因此，本研究旨在探讨PZH对胶原诱导性关节炎（CIA）小鼠的治疗效果及潜在机制。
使用雄性DBA/1J小鼠建立CIA动物模型，然后用不同剂量的PZH治疗4周。通过关节炎评分、病理染色以及检测血清和关节中炎症因子水平来评估PZH对CIA小鼠的治疗效果。为探究其可能的机制，检测NF-κB信号通路、NLRP3炎性小体的活性以及A20的水平。
结果显示，PZH可减轻CIA小鼠后爪的红斑和肿胀，改善关节病理状况，并降低血清和关节中IL-1β、IL-6和IL-17的产生。此外，与模型组相比，PZH可显著抑制CIA小鼠踝关节中NF-κB信号通路和NLRP3炎性小体的活性。它还增加了CIA小鼠踝关节中A20的水平。
本研究表明，PZH可减轻CIA小鼠的关节炎症，其机制可能与调节NF-κB信号通路和NLRP3炎性小体有关。
