Traditional Chinese Medicine Against Gouty Arthritis via Regulating Inflammatory Signaling Pathway： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Gouty arthritis （GA） is a metabolic disease caused by disorders of purine metabolism and/or abnormal excretion of uric acid in the body. Its pathogenesis is mostly related to dietary structure as well as excessive intake of protein， sugar and fat， and the clinical manifestations are joint redness， swelling， heat and pain， which seriously affect the daily life of patients. Therefore， it is urgent to carry out research on anti-GA drugs. Western drugs for the treatment of GA， such as colchicine， can relieve pain in the short term， but with obvious side effects in long-term treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine has definite efficacy and high safety in the treatment of GA and is more acceptable to patients than western medicine. Modern medical research has concluded that inflammatory factors， oxidative stress， apoptosis and intestinal dysbacteriosis are closely related to the pathogenesis of GA. In-depth research has found that single traditional Chinese medicine and its compounds can regulate Toll-like receptors/myeloid differentiation factor 88 （TLRs/MyD88） signaling pathway， NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 （NLRP3） inflammasome， nuclear transcription factor-κB （NF-κB） and other inflammatory signaling pathways， and further intervene in the downstream cytokines such as interleukin-1β （IL-1β）， interleukin-2 （IL-2）， interleukin-6 （IL-6）， tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α）， peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ （PPARγ）， nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells inhibitor-α（IκB-α） and aspartate-specific cysteine protease 1 （Caspase-1） to reduce inflammatory factors and increase anti-inflammatory factors， thereby exerting the anti-GA role. Therefore， this paper summarized and elaborated the experiments of inflammatory response mediated by traditional Chinese medicines and their compounds via regulating inflammatory signaling pathways in recent years， which provides new ideas and theoretical basis for finding more related anti-inflammatory traditional Chinese medicines for the treatment of GA.