Withanolides, Extracted from Datura Metel L. Inhibit Keratinocyte Proliferation and Imiquimod-Induced Psoriasis-Like Dermatitis via the STAT3/P38/ERK1/2 Pathway

Analytical Strategies to Investigate Molecular Signaling, Proteomics, Extraction and Quantification of Withanolides - A Comprehensive Review

Withanolides are the class of steroidal molecules getting greater emphasis in recent years. Quality control throughout the manufacturing and storage period is often one of the key problems that have restricted their broad use in India's indigenous and Ayurvedic medical systems for thousands of years. Because of their diverse clinical potential, withanolides have received a great deal of scientific attention. Analytical techniques are being devised for the automated isolation, identification, and estimation of every single protein within the cell as well as in herbal extracts of withanolides, due to which now researchers are interested in determining the effects of metabolism as well as various stimuli on protein expression, which made the study easier. This study discusses the potential use of hyphenated analytical methods that are reliable in understanding the molecular signaling features, proteome evaluation and characterization of withanolides, in addition to examining existing methodological limitations. The choice of analytical techniques for the withanolides analysis, however, relies on the nature of the sample matrix, the aim of the analysis, and the sensitivity of the technique.

Crosstalk between cholesterol metabolism and psoriatic inflammation

Psoriasis is a chronic autoinflammatory skin disease associated with multiple comorbidities, with a prevalence ranging from 2 to 3% in the general population. Decades of preclinical and clinical studies have revealed that alterations in cholesterol and lipid metabolism are strongly associated with psoriasis. Cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-17), which are important in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, have been shown to affect cholesterol and lipid metabolism. Cholesterol metabolites and metabolic enzymes, on the other hand, influence not only the biofunction of keratinocytes (a primary type of cell in the epidermis) in psoriasis, but also the immune response and inflammation. However, the relationship between cholesterol metabolism and psoriasis has not been thoroughly reviewed. This review mainly focuses on cholesterol metabolism disturbances in psoriasis and their crosstalk with psoriatic inflammation.

The genus Datura L. (Solanaceae): A systematic review of botany, traditional use, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology

The genus Datura has been used as an important traditional medicine in China, as well as in other countries worldwide. This review summarizes the latest progress and perspective of the genus Datura, from the aspects of botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology. Up to May 2022, literatures were collected from online scientific databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, SciFinder, CNKI, ACS, and Web of Science, and information was also obtained from "Flora Republicae Populairs Sinicae", Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Chinese herbal classic books, and Ph.D. and M. Sc. dissertations. Studies on chemical constituents, pharmacological activities, and toxicity are mainly focused on D. metel, D. stramonium, and D. inoxia. Furthermore, 496 compounds have been discovered from the genus Datura, including withanolides, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, steroids, amino acids, aromatics, and aliphatics. Among them, withanolides and alkaloids are two main active constituents. Pharmacological activities of extracts and compounds have been studied from the aspects of antitumor, antiinflammation, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antispasmodic, anticoagulant, analgesic, hypoglycemic and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activities, as well as the effects on central nervous system and immune system. Modern pharmacological studies have provided more clues to elucidate the traditional usages. The toxicity of the genus Datura is noteworthy, especially the potential toxicity on organs. This review would provide a comprehensive and constructive overview for new drug development and utilization of the genus Datura.

Eupatilin inhibits keratinocyte proliferation and ameliorates imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like skin lesions in mice via the p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway

BACKGROUND

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that is currently incurable and causes long-term distress to patients. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop safe and effective psoriatic drugs. Eupatilin is a natural flavone, that has a variety of pharmacological effects. However, the anti-psoriatic effect of eupatilin and its underlying mechanism remain unclear.

METHODS

HaCaT cells were treated with 20 μg/mL LPS for 24 h to establish the proliferation model of HaCaT cells. Cell viability was measured by MTT assay. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of p-p38 MAPK, p38 MAPK, p-NF-κB p65 and NF-κB p65 in HaCaT cells. Imiquimod (IMQ) was used to induce psoriasis-like mouse model. Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) score was used to evaluate the degree of skin injury, H&E staining was used to observe the pathological damage of skin tissues, and the expression levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-23 and IL-17 in the serum were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

RESULTS

Eupatilin could inhibit the hyperproliferation of LPS-stimulated HaCaT cells through p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway in vitro. In psoriatic mice, eupatilin could significantly reduce skin erythema, scales and thickening scores, ameliorate skin histopathological lesions, and decrease the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-23 and IL-17 in the serum.

CONCLUSION

Eupatilin had a good anti-proliferative effect in LPS-stimulated HaCaT cells, and significantly alleviated IMQ-induced psoriasis-like lesions in mice. Eupatilin was a promising drug for the treatment of psoriasis.

Potential effects and mechanisms of Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of psoriasis

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory dermatosis related to high morbidity and mortality. The incidence of psoriasis is increasing in recent decades. Some patients with psoriasis are anxious about the underlying side effects of synthetic drugs they are on. Therefore, they are eager to seek alternative and efficient therapy, such as Chinese herbal medicine (CHM). Researchers have found some CHM provides best source for the development of anti-psoriatic drugs because of their structural diversity and fewer adverse reactions. Some of CHM formulas or active constituents extracted from CHM have been rapidly developed into clinical drugs with good efficacy. At present, along with the CHM formulas, single CHM and its active components have been extensively accepted and utilized in the treatment of psoriasis, whose therapeutic mechanisms hitherto have not been thoroughly illustrated.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This review aimed to comprehensively summarize about the existing therapeutic mechanisms of CHM in the treatment of psoriasis and to provide a reference to develop future related studies in this field.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Relevant literatures about how CHM treated psoriasis were acquired from published scientific studies (including PubMed, CNKI, Web of Science, Baidu Scholar, The Plant List, Elsevier and SciFinder). All plants appearing in the review have been included in The Plant List or Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS).

RESULTS

In this review, we collect numerous literatures about how CHM treats psoriasis via immune cells, signaling pathways and disease-related mediators and systematically elucidates potential mechanisms from the point of the suppression of oxidative stress, the inhibition of abnormal abnormal proliferation and differentiation, the inhibition of immune responses, and the suppression of angiogenesis.

CONCLUSIONS

Psoriasis is considered as a complicated disease caused by interaction among various mechanisms. The CHM formulas, single CHM and its active components have considerable positive reports about the treatment of psoriasis, which brings hope for a promising future of CHM in the clinical therapy of psoriasis. In the paper, we have concluded that the existing therapeutic mechanisms of CHM in the treatment of psoriasis.

Biosynthetic pathways of triterpenoids and strategies to improve their Biosynthetic Efficiency

"Triterpenoids" can be considered natural products derived from the cyclization of squalene, yielding 3-deoxytriterpenes (hydrocarbons) or 3-hydroxytriterpenes. Triterpenoids are metabolites of these two classes of triterpenes, produced by the functionalization of their carbon skeleton. They can be categorized into different groups based on their structural formula/design. Triterpenoids are an important group of compounds that are widely used in the fields of pharmacology, food, and industrial biotechnology. However, inadequate synthetic methods and insufficient knowledge of the biosynthesis of triterpenoids, such as their structure, enzymatic activity, and the methods used to produce pure and active triterpenoids, are key problems that limit the production of these active metabolites. Here, we summarize the derivatives, pharmaceutical properties, and biosynthetic pathways of triterpenoids and review the enzymes involved in their biosynthetic pathway. Furthermore, we concluded the screening methods, identified the genes involved in the pathways, and highlighted the appropriate strategies used to enhance their biosynthetic production to facilitate the commercial process of triterpenoids through the synthetic biology method.

Total withanolides ameliorates imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like skin inflammation

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Datura metel L. has been used as an anesthetic in clinic for more than 1800 years in China, and the main efficacy of D. metel L. flower is relieving asthma and cough, relieving spasm and relieving pain. From 1978 to 1980, Datura metel L. was used as an anesthetic agent and occasionally cured psoriasis patients during anesthesia clinically, and our group confirmed that the effective portion is total withanolides (YWS). Moreover, the new drug "Datura metel L. capsule" composed of YWS has since been approved and used for the treatment of more than 3,000 psoriasis patients, with efficacy and cure rates greater than 90% and 65%. However, the immunological mechanism has not been elucidated.

AIM OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, although total withanolides from Datura metel L. have a better clinical efficacy in the treatment of psoriasis, there is a lack of overall understanding of the mechanism of their treatment, especially about some immune cells and proteins closely related to psoriasis and their relationship in executive function and biological significance. This study focused on investigating the mechanism of psoriasis treatment by YWS and determined the biochemical processes in the treatment of psoriasis based on Treg/Th17 axis cell-mediated bidirectional immunoregulatory functions, which provides an important scientific basis for understanding the mechanism underlying the treatment of psoriasis by YWS.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The effects of YWS on the lesion pathology of IMQ-induced psoriasis mice and the underlying molecular mechanism were assessed directly using HE staining, the PASI score and the animal body mass. We also investigated the effects of YWS on the Treg/Th17 axis and their critical functions in psoriasis pathogenesis via molecular biological methods. Finally, we performed differential proteomics analysis on skin in IMQ-induced psoriasis mice to clarify the effect of YWS by incorporates mass spectrometry-bioinformatics and annotated the functions and pathways associated with the differential proteins through GO enrichment, KEGG pathway analysis and PPI networks analysis, respectively.

RESULTS

YWS regulated the imbalance of the Treg/Th17 axis. And proteomic analysis showed that YWS up-regulated 46 and down-regulated 37 proteins. According to the bioinformatics analysis, the improvement of Treg/Th17 imbalance may be the key immunological mechanism of YWS in the treatment of psoriasis by up-regulating the butyrate metabolism pathway, down-regulating leukocyte migration, inhibiting the phagocytic function of natural killer cells, suppressing osteoclast differentiation and interfering with chemokine activity, and the critical proteins involved are Lyn, HMGCS2, ABAT, ITGβ2, PRKCβ, MMP9, NCF1, JUNβ, and Hck.

CONCLUSION

This research clarified that the improvement of the imbalance of the Treg/Th17 axis may be the key immunological mechanism of YWS in the treatment of psoriasis through metabolic pathways and influencing key proteins. The results not only expand the therapeutic targets and approaches for the treatment of psoriasis, which is a challenging and complex disease, but also deepens the understanding of the mechanism of YWS in the treatment of psoriasis and other important conditions to open up a new way of thinking for research on YWS in the treatment of psoriasis.

Natural medicine combined with nanobased topical delivery systems: a new strategy to treat psoriasis

Psoriasis, an autoimmune inflammatory skin disorder, is one of the commonest immune-mediated disease conditions affecting individuals globally. At the moment, the conventional methods applied against psoriasis treatment have various drawbacks involving limited efficacy, skin irritation, immunosuppression, etc. Therefore, it is important for scientists to find a more potent and alternative drug approach towards psoriasis therapeutics. Natural medicine still remains an important source for new drug discovery due to its therapeutical significance in various drug administration routes. However, the traditional formulation of topical therapies for psoriasis is limited in efficacy, which limits the use of natural medicine. Based on the aforementioned limitations, the use of nanocarriers in preparation of these topical herbal products could be tremendously beneficial in enhancing the efficacy of topical medications. Growing pieces of evidence have proposed that the utilization of nanocarriers in transdermal preparation as a prospective technique, with regards to better potency, directs drug absorption to site of action, and minimum toxicity effect respectively. In the course of this review, we emphasized the pathological mechanism of psoriasis, natural medicine formula, active components of natural medicine, and nanopreparations used in the treatment of psoriasis.

Apatinib-Induced Hand-Foot Skin Reaction in Chinese Patients With Liver Cancer

Apatinib, an anti-tumor drug selectively targeting VEGFR2 (Vascular Endothelia Growth Factor Recpetor-2), has been proven effective in Chinese patients with liver cancer. Generally, treatment with apatinib achieves 16.1% of the overall objective remission rate (ORR) and 55.83% of the disease control rate (DCR) in Chinese patients with liver cancer. However, the prevalence of apatinib-induced hand–foot skin reaction (AI-HFSR) is noticeably high. The incidence of AI-HFSR is about 50.5%, of which Grades 1/2 and 3 are 38.8 and 11.6%, respectively. In addition, potential molecular mechanisms underlying the development of AI-HFSR are poorly understood and urgently needed to be investigated histologically. In this review, we summarize and review the current efficacy of apatinib and the prevalence of AI-HFSR in Chinese patients with liver cancer. Besides, we postulate the potential mechanisms underlying the development of AI-HFSR and discuss the optimal clinical management for this unwanted cutaneous side effect.

UPLC-orbitrap-MS-based metabolic profiling of HaCaT cells exposed to withanolides extracted from Datura metel.L: Insights from an untargeted metabolomics

In recent decades, more and more attention to the withanolides extracted from Datura metel.L has been paid due to their anti-psoriatic effects. Withanolides have also been reported to exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative properties. Thus, withanolides have been considered as a promising candidate of anti-psoriatic drug. The aim of this study was to investigated the metabolic network of HaCaT cells after exposure to withanolides to identify anti-psoriatic mechanism induced by withanolides on skin cells. In this experiment, our results demonstrated that exposure to withanolides at concentrations beyond 50 μg/mL inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, withanolides-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and mitochondrial depolarization in HaCaT cells. In this research, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with orbitrap mass spectrometry (UPLC-orbitrap-MS) method was applied to profile metabolite changes in HaCaT cells exposed to withanolides. In total, significant variations in 38 differential metabolites were identified between withanolides exposure and untreated groups. The exposure of HaCaT cells to withanolides at the dose of 200 μg/mL for 24 h was revealed by the disturbance of energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism and nucleic acid metabolism. UPLC-orbitrap-MS-based cell metabolomics provided a comprehensive method for the identification of withanolides' anti-psoriasis mechanisms in vitro. And above metabolic disorders also reflected potential therapeutic targets for treating psoriasis.