Banzhilian formula alleviates psoriasis-like lesions via the LCN2/MMP-9 axis based on transcriptome analysis

Meng Xing; Xiaoning Yan; Jiangtao Guo; Wenbin Li; ZhangJun Li; Chun Dong; Jiao Guo; Keshen Qu; Ying Luo

doi:10.3389/fphar.2023.1055363

Banzhilian formula alleviates psoriasis-like lesions via the LCN2/MMP-9 axis based on transcriptome analysis

Front Pharmacol. 2023 Mar 6:14:1055363. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1055363. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Meng Xing¹, Xiaoning Yan¹, Jiangtao Guo^{1

2}, Wenbin Li¹, ZhangJun Li¹, Chun Dong¹, Jiao Guo¹, Keshen Qu^{3

4}, Ying Luo^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Dermatology, Shaanxi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi'an, China.
² The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
³ The Second Clinical Medical College, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China.
⁴ Department of Dermatology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China.
⁵ Department of Dermatology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Institute of Dermatology, Shanghai Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Oral Banzhilian formula (BZLF) is effective in the clinical treatment of psoriasis. However, the effectiveness and mechanism of different drug delivery routes deserve further study. Methods: First, we established the mouse model of psoriasis using imiquimod (IMQ), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for the quality control of BZLF. Secondly, Total RNA Sequencing and bioinformatics analysis were used to explore the regulatory mechanism of BZLF in improving psoriatic lesions. Finally, further verification was based on animal experiments. Results: we externally applied BZLF for skin lesions in an imiquimod-induced psoriasis mouse model and found that BZLF alleviated psoriasis-like skin lesions while inhibiting the expression of Ki67 and inflammatory factors (Il17a, Tnf-α, S100a7 and Cxcl1) in skin lesions. Transcriptome sequencing results suggested that BZLF inhibited signalling pathways closely related to psoriatic inflammation, such as the IL-17 signalling pathway, chemokine signalling pathway, TNF signalling pathway, and NF-kappa B signalling pathway, and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network identified LCN2 as one of the core target genes and screened out its regulated downstream gene MMP9. Discussion: Our findings suggest that the anti-psoriatic mechanism of BZLF involved in downregulating the LCN2/MMP-9 axis.

Keywords: Banzhilian formula; Chinese medicine; RNA sequencing analysis; psoriasis; transcriptomic analysis.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (No. 2022JQ-830), Shaanxi Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Project (No. 2021-ZZ-JC031), Open Project of Provincial Key Laboratory of Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. KF2206), Shanghai Sailing Program (No. 21YF1448100), Innovation Chain of Key Industries in Shaanxi Province(No. 2019ZDLSF04-08), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) of China (No. 82174386).