Artemisinin and its derivatives as promising therapies for autoimmune diseases

Kaidi Xie; Zhen Li; Yang Zhang; Hao Wu; Tong Zhang; Wen Wang

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27972

Artemisinin and its derivatives as promising therapies for autoimmune diseases

Heliyon. 2024 Mar 11;10(7):e27972. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27972. eCollection 2024 Apr 15.

Authors

Kaidi Xie¹, Zhen Li^{1

2}, Yang Zhang^{1

2}, Hao Wu^{1

2}, Tong Zhang^{1

2}, Wen Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory for HIV/ AIDS Research, Beijing, 100069, China.

Abstract

Artemisinin, a traditional Chinese medicine with remarkable antimalarial activity. In recent years, studies demonstrated that artemisinin and its derivatives (ARTs) showed anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory effects. ARTs have been developed and gradually applied to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. However, their role in the treament of patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in particular is less well recognized. This review will briefly describe the history of ARTs use in patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, the theorized mechanisms of action of the agents ARTs, their efficacy in patients with autoinmmune and inflammatory diseases. Overall, ARTs have numerous beneficial effects in patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and have a good safety profile.

Keywords: Artemisinin and its derivatives (ARTs); Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases; Cellular signaling; Immunoregulation; Inflammatory cytokines.

Publication types

Review