Xinfeng Capsule (新风胶囊) for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients with decreased pulmonary function — A randomized controlled clinical trial

et al. 2019

Int J Mol Med

Self Cite

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease of unknown etiology, which occurs in ~1.0% of the general population. Increasing studies have suggested that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may serve important roles in various biological processes and may be associated with the pathogenesis of different types of disease, including RA. Astragalosides (AST) has been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of RA. However, the mechanism underlying its therapeutic effect has remained unclear to date. Thus, there is an urgent need to elucidate the possible mechanism of AST in the treatment of RA from the perspective of lncRNAs. In the present study, the lncRNAs and mRNAs of a vehicle group, animal model group and AST treatment (control) group were determined by Arraystar Rat lncRNA/mRNA microarray. The differentially expressed genes with a fold change >1.5 and P<0.05 were selected and analyzed. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway analysis was performed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integration Discovery, and the coding-non-coding gene co-expression network was drawn based on the correlation analysis between the differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs. Based on node degree and the correlation between bioinformatics analysis and RA, the critical differentially expressed lncRNAs were selected, analyzed and verified by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis. The results showed that, following AST treatment, up to 75 lncRNAs and 247 mRNAs were found to be differentially expressed among the three groups. GO and pathway analysis manifested that 135 GO terms and 17 pathways were enriched by differentially expressed genes. Four lncRNAs (MRAK012530, MRAK132628, MRAK003448 and XR_006457) were selected as the critical lncRNAs and their trend in expression showed consistency between the RT-qPCR and microarray data. In conclusion, AST had a regulatory effect on differentially expressed lncRNAs during the development of RA, and four lncRNAs could be selected as critical therapeutic targets of AST.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of astragalosides on long non-coding RNA expression profiles in rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis

Jiang

et al. 2019

Int J Mol Med

Self Cite

“…22 XFC can reduce the immune inflammatory response to improve the extra-articular lesions in RA patients. [23][24][25][26][27] XFC can regulate the level of B cell activating factor and its receptor in active RA and increase the level of immunoglobulin in RA patients. 28 XFC improves blood stasis in patients with RA through the Actl/NF-κB signaling pathway.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Mechanism of Action of Xinfeng Capsule in Treating Hypercoagulable State of Rheumatoid Arthritis Based on Data Mining and Network Pharmacology

Wang

Natural Product Communications

Fang

et al. 2022

Self Cite

Objective: To explore the effect of Xinfeng Capsule (XFC) on hypercoagulable state in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using data mining and network pharmacology. Methods: The data were collected of 524 inpatients with RA who were treated with XFC in the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) before October 2021. The changes of C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), rheumatoid factor (RF), complement component 3 (C3), C4, platelet (PLT), fibrinogen (FBG), thrombin time (TT), prothrombin time (PT), and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) were observed before and after the treatment. By implementing the Apriori module, the association rules between XFC and immune-inflammation indexes and coagulation indexes were analyzed. XFC and disease targets were obtained through traditional chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform, Genecards, OMIM, and other databases. The cross targets and core targets were screened, and the network diagram of TCM—active ingredients—potential targets was constructed using Cytoscape3.7.2 software. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed through Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) database. AutoDock Vina software was used for molecular docking between active ingredients and core targets. The docking results were visualized using PyMOL2.3.0 software. Results: (1) Data mining results showed that the inflammation and coagulation indexes of RA patients were significantly improved after XFC treatment, and there was a strong correlation between XFC and the improvement of CRP, ESR, RF, C3, C4, PLT, FBG, TT, PT, and APTT. (2) Network pharmacology results showed that prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2), CASP3, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), AKT1, and JUN, the main targets of XFC in the treatment of RA, were closely related to apoptosis and were mainly involved in interleukin 17 (IL-17), TNF, and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κb), and other apoptotic and inflammatory signaling pathways. (3) Molecular docking results showed that the active components of XFC, β- sitosterol, and stigmasterol, had good docking with TNF and PTGS2, which might be the key active components of XFC in the treatment of RA-related hypercoagulable state. Conclusion: XFC can improve the hypercoagulable state of patients with RA by promoting cell apoptosis and improving immune inflammatory response.

“…The randomized controlled trial of XFC and leflunomide in the treatment of RA elucidated that XFC not only had superior efficacy and safety but also could improve the patient perception score [ 39 ]. XFC has been validated to be effective in improving extra-articular manifestations, such as cardiopulmonary function, anemia, and lipid metabolism disorders [ 40 , 41 ]. In addition, HQC also assumes an established role in diminishing immune inflammatory responses and suppressing oxidative damage in RA [ 42 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traditional Chinese Medicine Is Associated with Reduced Risk of Readmission in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients with Anemia: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Sun

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Xin

et al. 2022

Self Cite

Objective. This study aimed to analyze the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on the risk of readmission for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with anemia. Methods. In this study, 893 hospitalized RA patients were followed up by telephone. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using propensity score matching (PSM). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the influence of various factors on the risk of readmission for RA patients with anemia. The Kaplan–Meier survival curve was utilized to analyze the effect of TCM intervention time on readmission. Results. The incidence of anemia was 58.08% (471/811) in RA patients. After 1 : 1 PSM, 328 RA patients with anemia and 328 RA patients without anemia were finally included in our study. The readmission rate of anemia patients was higher than that of patients without anemia ( P < 0.01 ). The readmission rate of RA patients with anemia was obviously lower in the TCM group than in the non-TCM group ( P < 0.01 ). The Cox proportional hazards model showed TCM as an independent protective factor as it decreased the risk of readmission by 50% (HR = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.27–0.94, P = 0.03 ) in RA patients with anemia. In addition, the risk of readmission was dramatically diminished in the high-exposure subgroup (TCM > 12 months) compared with the low-exposure subgroup (TCM ≤ 12 months) (log-rank P = 0.016 ). Conclusion. TCM, as a protective factor, is associated with a reduced risk of readmission in RA patients with anemia.