Chinese medicine decoction reduce adverse events associated with gouty arthritis

A recent publication in the journal of Medicine proposes that the use of traditional Chinese medicine decoction (TCMD) may serve as a viable complementary and alternative approach to manage gouty arthritis (GA).

This randomized controlled trials focused on TCMD for gouty arthritis were retrieved from both Chinese and English databases. 84 studies including 7151 patients and evaluation of 10 outcome indicators were incorporated in this analysis. Information on the ingredients and targets associated with TCMD and GA was gathered from various databases including TCMSP and DrugBank. 

The key findings of this study were:

1.The meta-analysis revealed that TCMD demonstrated superior efficacy in reducing the incidence of adverse events and levels of various laboratory indicators, such as blood uric acid (BUA), C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 8 (IL-8), interleukin 1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) when compared to standard treatment.

2.The team extracted 150 active ingredients and 303 target genes from the top 10 herbs across the 84 studies, alongside 3082 disease targets and 195 common targets between the herbs and gouty arthritis (GA).

3.The key ingredients, overlapping targets, and implicated signaling pathways included quercetin, kaempferol, and wogonin; AKT1, TNF, and TP53; as well as IL-17, HIF-1, and PI3K-AKT, among others.

4.This study visualized 10 outcomes exhibiting low binding energy, out of the 81 molecular docking results that includes interactions between IL1B and beta-sitosterol, MYC and beta-sitosterol.

In conclusion, given the demonstrated effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine decoction in lowering the occurrence of adverse events, it could be considered as a suitable complementary and alternative approach for managing individuals with gout.

Reference:

Qu, P., Du, S., Wang, W., Peng, Z., Hu, Q., Wang, H., & Tang, X. (2024). Treatment of gouty arthritis with traditional Chinese medicine decoction: Meta-analysis, network pharmacology analysis, and molecular docking. In Medicine (Vol. 103, Issue 1, p. e36722). Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000036722