Potential therapeutic compounds from traditional Chinese medicine targeting endoplasmic reticulum stress to alleviate rheumatoid arthritis

• Published in: Pharmacological research 2021-08, Vol.170, p.105696-105696, Article 105696
• Main Authors: de Seabra Rodrigues Dias, Ivo Ricardo, Lo, Hang Hong, Zhang, Kaixi, Law, Betty Yuen Kwan, Nasim, Ali Adnan, Chung, Sookja Kim, Wong, Vincent Kam Wai, Liu, Liang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents - therapeutic use; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - therapeutic use; Antirheumatic Agents - adverse effects; Antirheumatic Agents - therapeutic use; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - drug therapy; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - immunology; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - metabolism; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - adverse effects; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - therapeutic use; Endoplasmic reticulum stress; Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress - drug effects; Humans; Joints - drug effects; Joints - immunology; Joints - metabolism; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Rheumatoid arthritis; Stress modulation; Therapeutic drug; Traditional Chinese medicine
• ISSN: 1043-6618; 1096-1186
• DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2021.105696

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease which affects about 0.5–1% of people with symptoms that significantly impact a sufferer’s lifestyle. The cells involved in propagating RA tend to display pro-inflammatory and cancer-like characteristics. Medical drug treatment is currently the main avenue of RA therapy. However, drug options are limited due to severe side effects, high costs, insufficient disease retardation in a majority of patients, and therapeutic effects possibly subsiding over time. Thus there is a need for new drug therapies. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, a condition due to accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER, and subsequent cellular responses have been found to be involved in cancer and inflammatory pathologies, including RA. ER stress protein markers and their modulation have therefore been suggested as therapeutic targets, such as GRP78 and CHOP, among others. Some current RA therapeutic drugs have been found to have ER stress-modulating properties. Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs) frequently use natural products that affect multiple body and cellular targets, and several medicines and/or their isolated compounds have been found to also have ER stress-modulating capabilities, including TCMs used in RA treatment by Chinese Medicine practitioners. This review encourages, in light of the available information, the study of these RA-treating, ER stress-modulating TCMs as potential new pharmaceutical drugs for use in clinical RA therapy, along with providing a list of other ER stress-modulating TCMs utilized in treatment of cancers, inflammatory diseases and other diseases, that have potential use in RA treatment given similar ER stress-modulating capacity. [Display omitted]