Pharmacologic activities of phytosteroids in inflammatory diseases: Mechanism of action and therapeutic potentials

Abstract

Natural products and their derivatives are known to be useful for treating numerous diseases since ancient times. Because of their high therapeutic potentials, the use of different medicinal plants is possible to treat varied inflammation‐mediated chronic diseases. Among natural products, phytosteroids have emerged as promising compounds mostly because they have diverse pharmacological activities. Currently, available medications exert numerous systemic toxicities, including hypertension, immune suppression, osteoporosis, and metabolic abnormalities. Thus, further research on phytosteroids to subside these complications is of significant importance. In this study, the information on phytosteroids, their types, and actions against inflammation, and allergic complications was collected by a systematic survey of literature on several scientific search engines. The literature review suggested that phytosteroids exhibit antiinflammatory action via different modes through transrepression or selective COX‐2 enzymes. Also, in silico ADMET analysis was carried out on available phytosteroids to uncover their pharmacokinetic properties. Our analysis has shown that eight compounds: withaferin A, stigmasterol, β‐sitosterol, guggulsterone, diosgenin, sarsasapogenin, physalin A, and dioscin, −isolated from medicinal plants show similar pharmacokinetic properties as compared to dexamethasone, commercially available glucocorticoid. These phytosteroids could be useful for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases. Thus, systematic research is required to explore potent phytosteroids with lesser side effects, which might substitute the current medications.

Molecular Mechanism Underlying Effects of Wumeiwan on Steroid-Dependent Asthma: A Network Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Verification Study

“… 51 , 52 Sitosterol is one of the bioactive phytosterols, which has shown the potential anti-inflammatory activity and antihistamine activity by inhibiting the release of histamine from the MCs, expression of TNF-α, and blocking the activity of cyclooxygenase-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and extracellular-signal regulating kinase pathways. 53 Moreover, it is proved that sitosterol treatment could significantly increase the tidal volume and decrease the respiration rate of asthmatic guinea pigs and protect against airway inflammation in lung tissue histopathology. 54 All in all, these studies about pivotal ingredients of WMW lend support to our findings of HUB gene GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis.…”

Eucommia ulmoides Oliver-Tribulus terrestris L. Drug Pair Regulates Ferroptosis by Mediating the Neurovascular-Related Ligand-Receptor Interaction Pathway- A Potential Drug Pair for Treatment Hypertension and Prevention Ischemic Stroke

“…We further showed that ADRB2 bound most tightly to cyclopamine; CHRM1 to beta-sitosterol; NR3C1 to mairin; OPRD1 to tabernemontanine, moupinamide, epiquinidine; and OPRD1 to tabernemontanine, moupinamide, epiquinidine, 3-Hydroxymethylenetanshinquinone, and (-)-Tabernemontanine. Beta-sitosterol has anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, antioxidant, anti-hyperlipidemic, and antihypertensive effects ( 82 – 84 ), and moupinamide is also anti-inflammatory ( 85 ). Inflammatory processes are involved in the development of hypertension ( 86 , 87 ).…”

Computation-Based Discovery of Potential Targets for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Related Molecular Screening and Mechanism Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine

“…Moreover, dioscin inhibits the M2 polarization of macrophages in the JNK and STAT3 pathways, thereby triggering antitumor immunity [ 36 ]. Other studies have further shown that dioscin has similar pharmacokinetic characteristics to dexamethasone [ 37 ] and exerts antiarthritis effects by inhibiting the immune response of Th17 cells [ 38 ]. In addition, dioscin inhibits osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption by downregulating the Akt signaling cascade [ 39 ].…”