Role of Bioactive Compounds, Novel Drug Delivery Systems, and Polyherbal Formulations in the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Published in: Combinatorial chemistry & high throughput screening Vol. 27; no. 3; p. 353
• Main Authors: Rana, Neha, Gupta, Piyush, Singh, Hridayanand, Nagarajan, Kandasamy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United Arab Emirates 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Animals; Antirheumatic Agents - chemistry; Antirheumatic Agents - pharmacology; Antirheumatic Agents - therapeutic use; Arthritis, Rheumatoid - drug therapy; Drug Delivery Systems; Humans; Phytochemicals - chemistry; Phytochemicals - pharmacology; Plants, Medicinal - chemistry; Rheumatoid arthritis (RA); autoimmune disorder; bioactive compounds; novel drug delivery systems; rheumatic biomarkers; polyherbal formulations (PHFs); oxidative stress
• ISSN: 1875-5402
• DOI: 10.2174/1386207326666230914103714

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that generally causes joint synovial inflammation as well as gradual cartilage and degenerative changes, resulting in progressive immobility. Cartilage destruction induces synovial inflammation, including synovial cell hyperplasia, increased synovial fluid, and synovial pane development. This phenomenon causes articular cartilage damage and joint alkalosis. Traditional medicinal system exerts their effect through several cellular mechanisms, including inhibition of inflammatory mediators, oxidative stress suppression, cartilage degradation inhibition, increasing antioxidants and decreasing rheumatic biomarkers. The medicinal plants have yielded a variety of active constituents from various chemical categories, including alkaloids, triterpenoids, steroids, glycosides, volatile oils, flavonoids, lignans, coumarins, terpenes, sesquiterpene lactones, anthocyanins, and anthraquinones. This review sheds light on the utilization of medicinal plants in the treatment of RA. It explains various phytoconstituents present in medicinal plants and their mechanism of action against RA. It also briefs about the uses of polyherbal formulations (PHF), which are currently in the market and the toxicity associated with the use of medicinal plants and PHF, along with the limitations and research gaps in the field of PHF. This review paper is an attempt to understand various mechanistic approaches employed by several medicinal plants, their possible drug delivery systems and synergistic effects for curing RA with minimum side effects.