Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis Using Chinese Medicinal Plants: Special Emphasis on Mechanisms of Immune Modulation

Table 1

Chinese medicinal plant targets involved in immunoregulation effects.

Chinese medicinal plants or compounds	Pharmacological effects	Target factors	Action	Model	Reference
SIN	Immunoregulation	T-bet/GATA-3	T-bet/GATA-3 ratio ↓ from PBMCs, IFN-gamma in the serum ↓	MsPGN	[74]
1032 (a derivative of SIN)	Inflammatory reaction	IL-17	IL-17, IL-6, TNF-alpha ↓, IκBα ↑, suppression of Th17	Encephalomyelitis/dendritic cells	[75]
SIN	Immunoregulation	MMPs/TIMPs	Synovial fibroblast proliferation, anti-type II collagen antibodies, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-5, TGF-β ↓, the ratio of MMPs/TIMPs ↓	Arthritis rats	[76–78]
SIN	Inflammatory reaction	TLR4/TRAF6	TNF-α, TLR4, TRAF6, Fra-1, MMP-9, NF-κB, AP-1, NFAT, MAPK p38 ↓	Lipopolysaccharide-induced osteoclastogenesis and osteolysis	[81]
Naringin	Inflammatory reaction	Inflammatory cells	Inflammatory cells, high-mobility group box-1 ↓	Arthritis mice	[82]
Icaritin	Immunoregulation	TRAF6	NFATc1, TRAF6 ↓	OVX rat/RAW 264.7 mouse monocyte cell line/human PBMC	[98]
Eucommia ulmoides	Inflammatory reaction	Inflammatory cytokines	TNF-α, IL17, IL-1β ↓, IL-10 ↑	Arthritis rats	[107]
Eucommia ulmoides	Inflammatory reaction	PI3K/Akt, inflammatory cytokines	IL-1β, IL-6, MMP-3, phosphorylated MAPKs, PI3K/Akt, GSK-3β, NF-κB ↓, Nrf2, HO-1 ↑	Osteoarthritis rats/LPS-stimulated BV-2 microglial cells	[108, 109]
Quercetin	Inflammatory reaction	NF-κB	IL-6, IL-1α ↓, IL-3, IL-4 ↑	RAW 264.7 cells	[112]
LWDHP	Immunoregulation	Inflammatory cytokines	IL-2 ↓, interferon-gamma, IL-4, IL-10 ↑	Adjuvant arthritis rats	[129]
ZGW	Immunoregulation	Th17/Treg	IL-6, RORγt ↓, Foxp3 ↑	Estrogen-deficient mice	[133]

Sinomenine (SIN); mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MsPGN); matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs); tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs); tumor necrosis factor receptor associated-factor 6 (TRAF6); Fos-related antigen-1 (Fra-1); activator protein-1 (AP-1); nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) c1; mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK); lipopolysaccharide (LPS); Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4); phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K); nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB); glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β); nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2); heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), related orphan receptor gamma t (RORγt).