Chinese herbal medicines and its active ingredient wogonin can improve immune inflammation in psoriatic arthritis

Objective: In China, Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) have been widely used in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), showing great therapeutic effects in clinical practice. However, due to the great heterogeneity of PsA and the diversity of CHM combination patterns, there is little high-level evidence-based medical research on the treatment of PsA with CHMs. This study aims to explore the beneficial effects of CHMs on the immune inflammation in PsA and its specific mechanism.

Methods: The data mining method was performed to analyze the real-world data of 91 PsA clinical cases. Network pharmacology, molecular docking, and cellular experiments were used to explore the mechanism of CHMs and its active ingredient wogonin in improving PsA immune inflammation.

Results: Data mining results showed that in PsA, immune inflammation was disturbed and relevant indexes were significantly correlated. After CHM treatment, the level of HCRP, C4, IL-12, IL-17, IL-23, TNF-α, TGF-β1, P65, P50, and IKBα was markedly improved, which was highly correlated with the application of CHMs. In addition, the core prescription containing 10 CHMs was screened, and the action mechanisms of the active ingredient wogonin on the immune inflammation in PsA were identified with network pharmacology and molecular docking. Cell experiments revealed that wogonin reduced M5-induced HaCaT cell viability and TNF-α and IL-1β expressions by blocking the PI3K/AKT pathway in a dose-dependent manner.

Conclusion: Our findings strongly confirmed the enormous promise of CHMs as a therapy for PsA and may provide support for developing drugs and targets for PsA treatment.