Efficacy and Key Materials of East Asian Herbal Medicine Combined with Conventional Medicine on Inflammatory Skin Lesion in Patients with Psoriasis Vulgaris: A Meta-Analysis, Integrated Data Mining, and Network Pharmacology.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease that places a great burden on both individuals and society. The use of East Asian herbal medicine (EAHM) in combination with conventional medications is emerging as an effective strategy to control the complex immune-mediated inflammation of this disease from an integrative medicine (IM) perspective. The safety and efficacy of IM compared to conventional medicine (CM) were evaluated by collecting randomized controlled trial literature from ten multinational research databases. We then searched for important key materials based on integrated drug data mining. Network pharmacology analysis was performed to predict the mechanism of the anti-inflammatory effect. Data from 126 randomized clinical trials involving 11,139 patients were used. Compared with CM, IM using EAHM showed significant improvement in the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) 60 (RR: 1.4280; 95% CI: 1.3783-1.4794; p < 0.0001), PASI score (MD: -3.3544; 95% CI: -3.7608 to -2.9481; p < 0.0001), inflammatory skin lesion outcome, quality of life, serum inflammatory indicators, and safety index of psoriasis. Through integrated data mining of intervention data, we identified four herbs that were considered to be representative of the overall clinical effects of IM: Rehmannia glutinosa (Gaertn.) DC., Isatis tinctoria subsp. athoa (Boiss.) Papan., Paeonia × suffruticosa Andrews, and Scrophularia ningpoensis Hemsl. They were found to have mechanisms to inhibit pathological keratinocyte proliferation and immune-mediated inflammation, which are major pathologies of psoriasis, through multiple pharmacological actions on 19 gene targets and 8 pathways in network pharmacology analysis. However, the quality of the clinical trial design and pharmaceutical quality control data included in this study is still not optimal; therefore, more high-quality clinical and non-clinical studies are needed to firmly validate the information explored in this study. This study is informative in that it presents a focused hypothesis and methodology for the value and direction of such follow-up studies.

Integrative medicine (East Asian herbal medicine combined with conventional medicine) for psoriasis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune skin disease. The aim of this review is to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of integrative medicine (East Asian herbal medicine combined with conventional medicine) used to treat inflammatory skin lesions of psoriasis. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search will be conducted in 3 English databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase), 4 Korean databases (Korean Studies Information Service System, Research Information Service System, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, and Korea Citation Index), 2 Chinese databases (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database and Wanfang data), and 1 Japanese database (Citation Information by National Institute of Informatics) for randomized controlled trials from their inception until July 29, 2021. Statistical analysis will be performed using R version 4.1.2 and the R studio program using the default settings of the "meta" and "metafor" packages. The primary outcome will be an improvement in the psoriasis area severity index. All outcomes will be analyzed using a random-effects model to produce more statistically conservative results. If heterogeneity is detected in the study, the cause will be identified through sensitivity, meta-regression, and subgroup analyses. Methodological quality will be assessed independently using the revised tool for the risk of bias in randomized trials, version 2.0. The overall quality of evidence will be evaluated according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation pro framework. RESULTS: This study will review all available trials on the same subject and arrive at a more statistically robust conclusion based on a sufficient sample size of participants and additional analysis using data mining techniques will be performed on intervention prescription information in clinical studies collected according to rigorous criteria. CONCLUSION: We believe that this study will provide useful knowledge on managing inflammatory skin lesions of psoriasis vulgaris using integrative medicine using East Asian herbal medicine.

Oral Administration of East Asian Herbal Medicine for Inflammatory Skin Lesions in Plaque Psoriasis: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Exploration of Core Herbal Materials.

Psoriasis is an inflammatory autoimmune skin disease with various clinical manifestations. The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral administration of East Asian herbal medicine (EAHM) for inflammatory skin lesions in psoriasis and to explore core herbal materials for drug discovery. A comprehensive search was conducted in 10 electronic databases for randomized controlled trials from their inception until 29 July 2021. Statistical analysis was performed in R version 4.1.2 and R studio. When heterogeneity in studies was detected, the cause was identified through sensitivity analysis, meta-regression, and subgroup analysis. Methodological quality was independently assessed using the revised tool for risk of bias in randomized trials. A total of 56 trials with 4966 psoriasis patients met the selection criteria. Meta-analysis favored EAHM monotherapy on Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) 70 (RR: 1.2845; 95% CI: 1.906 to 1.3858, p < 0.0001), PASI 60 (RR: 1.1923; 95% CI: 1.1134 to 1.2769, p < 0.0001), continuous PASI score (MD: −2.3386, 95% CI: −3.3068 to −1.3704, p < 0.0001), IL-17, IL-23, TNF-α, and Dermatology Life Quality Index. Patients treated with EAHM monotherapy had significantly reduced adverse events incidence rate. In addition, based on additional examination of the herb data included in this meta-analysis, 16 core materials were identified. They are utilized in close proximity to one another, and all have anti-inflammatory properties. The findings in this study support that oral EAHM monotherapy may be beneficial for inflammatory skin lesions in psoriasis. Meanwhile, the identified core materials are expected to be utilized as useful drug candidate hypotheses through follow-up studies on individual pharmacological activities and synergistic effects.