Research progress on the mechanism of astragaloside IV in the treatment of asthma

Abstract

Asthma is a common chronic respiratory disease, and its treatment is a core problem and challenge in clinical practice. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are the first-line therapy for the treatment of asthma. Local and systemic adverse reactions caused by GCs create obstacles to the treatment of asthma. Therefore, the research target is to find a new, safe, and effective therapeutic medicine at present. Natural products are an important source for treating asthma with low cost and low toxicity. Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) is an active ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine Astragalus mongholicus Bunge. Previous studies have indicated that AS-IV plays a therapeutic role in the treatment of asthma by inhibiting airway inflammation and remodeling the airway, and by regulating immunity and neuroendocrine function (Fig. 1) . It has a variety of biological characteristics such as multi-target intervention, high safety, and good curative effect. This article reviews the specific mechanism of AS-IV for the treatment of asthma to provide references for subsequent research.

Fig. 1

Mechanism of AS-IV in the treatment of asthma. AS-IV plays a therapeutic role in the treatment of asthma by inhibiting airway inflammation and remodeling the airway, and regulating immunity and neuroendocrine function. (Fig. 1 was created with BioRender.com)

Fig. 2

Chemical structure of AS-IV.

Fig. 3

The pharmacokinetics process of AS-IV in rats. After intravenous administration of 4 mg/kg of AS-IV to rats, the concentrations in the liver, kidney, lung, spleen, and heart tissues were 916, 587, 463, 216, and 90.9 ng/mL, respectively [36]. It was slowly cleared primarily by the liver and excreted in feces, bile, and urine. The 24-h fecal, urinary, and biliary excretion rates were 31.41 %, 13.43 %, and 31.92 % in male rats and 31.84 %, 21.77 %, and 36.20 % in female rats, respectively [35]. (Fig. 3 was created with BioRender.com)

Fig. 4

Mechanism of AS-IV inhibiting airway inflammation and regulating immunity. AS-IV inhibits airway inflammation by reducing IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-13, eosinophils, and neutrophils. The immunoregulatory mechanism of AS-IV is realized by improving the imbalance of Th1/Th2 cells and Th17 cells/Tregs. (Fig. 4 was created with BioRender.com)

Fig. 5

Mechanism of AS-IV inhibiting airway inflammation and remodeling, and regulating immunity and neuroendocrine function. AS-IV inhibits and alleviates airway inflammation in asthma by preventing the activation of JAK/STAT6, NF-κB, and eotaxin/CCR3 signaling pathways and inhibiting the generation of inflammatory factors such as IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, and IL-13. AS-IV improves Th1/Th2 cell and Th17 cell/Treg imbalance by preventing the activation of GATA3 and STAT3 signaling pathways, respectively. AS-IV can reduce airway remodeling by downregulating the expression of TGF-β1 and α-SMA and reducing the production of inflammatory factors such as IL-4 and IL-13.