Paeoniflorin, a Natural Product With Multiple Targets in Liver Diseases—A Mini Review

Abstract

Paeoniflorin is derived from Paeonia suffruticosa Andr., Paeonia lactiflora Pall., or Paeonia veitchii Lynch and has been used in traditional medical applications for more than 2,000 years. Paeoniflorin is a monoterpenoid glycoside with various effects on liver diseases. Recent studies have revealed that paeoniflorin demonstrates a wide range of activities, including hepatic protection, cholestasis alleviation, liver fibrosis attenuation, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease prevention, and hepatocellular carcinoma inhibition involved in multiple pathways. Moreover, anti-inflammation, antioxidation, and immune regulation with the regulation of TLR4-NF-kB, ROCK/NF-kB, HO-1, mitochondria-dependent as well as HMGB1-TLR4 signaling pathways are correlated with hepatic protection in liver injury and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Antioxidative mechanisms, anti-inflammation, and hepatic transporter regulation involved in NOX4, PI3K/Akt/Nrf2, NF-kB, NTCP, BSEP, as well as MRP2 signals are mainly relevant to the anticholestatic effect of paeoniflorin. The inhibition of hepatic stellate cell activation and alleviation of extracellular matrix deposition via vast signals such as mTOR/HIF-1a, TGF-b1/Smads, and JAK2/STAT6 are primarily involved in the antifibrotic effect of paeoniflorin. The regulation of macrophages also contributes to the alleviation effect on liver fibrosis. In addition, the reduction of invasion, metastasis, and adhesion and the induction of apoptosis-related targets, including Bax, Bcl-2, and caspase-3, are related to its effect on hepatocellular carcinoma. The literature indicates that paeoniflorin might have potent efficacy in complex liver diseases and demonstrates the profound medicinal value of paeoniflorin.

Dexmedetomidine alleviates hepatic ischaemia‐reperfusion injury via the PI3K/AKT/Nrf2‐NLRP3 pathway

“…PI3K/AKT/Nrf2 pathway is implicated in the protection of liver injury 29,30 . Therefore, we detected the levels of PI3K/p‐PI3K, AKT/p‐AKT and Nrf2 in each group (Figure 5A).…”

Ranscriptome Analysis Reveals the Molecular Mechanism of Yiqi Rougan Decoction in Reducing CCl4-induced Liver Fibrosis in Rats

“…YQRG is a traditional Chinese medicine comprised of eight herbs and a mixture of compounds. In this study, we identi ed YQRG compounds by UHPLC-QTOF-MS, most of which were previously identi ed as playing a role in improving liver brosis (i.e., Paeoni orin, Bisdemethoxycurcumin, Curcumin, Cryptotanshinone, Gallic acid, Protocatechualdehyde, Rosmarinic acid, Salvianolic acid A) [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] (Fig. 1c).…”

Network pharmacology reveals the multiple mechanisms of Xiaochaihu decoction in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

“…Ginsenoside Rg1 from Renshen is confirmed to treat NAFLD via suppressing inflammasome activation [ 21 ]. In addition, baicalin and Paeoniflorin from Huangqin are also appeared to ameliorate NAFLD [ 22 , 23 ]. In order to explore the multiple mechanisms of Xiaochaihu decoction, TCMSP database was used to obtain the effective active ingredients and potential targets in this study.…”