Jieduquyuziyin Prescription Attenuates the Side Effect of Prednisone Through Regulating Gut Microbiota when in the Combination with Prednisone Treat MRL/lpr Mice

Overview

Journal J Tradit Complement Med

Specialty Rehabilitation Medicine

Date 2025 Mar 10

PMID 40060153

Authors

Zhengyang Zhu

Mingzhu Wang

Lin Huang

Zhixing He

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Jieduquyuziyin prescription (JP) is an empirical formula used to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). While JP has been shown to have synergistic and attenuated effects when combined with glucocorticoids (GCs) for SLE treatment, the precise mechanism remains unclear. This study utilized MRL/lpr mice to demonstrate the synergistic and attenuated effects of JP when combined with prednisone. Furthermore, a co-housing experiment was conducted to investigate whether JP-regulated gut microbiota had synergistic and attenuated effects in prednisone-treated MRL/lpr mice. The study found that JP exhibited synergistic effects only when combined with 5 mg/kg body weight prednisone, while its attenuated effects were observed with both 5 and 10 mg/kg body weight prednisone. Co-housing resulted in the transmission of gut microbiota between prednisone-treated and JP-treated MRL/lpr mice. However, co-housing did not enhance the therapeutic efficacy of prednisone; instead, it attenuated prednisone's adverse effects on liver inflammation (IL-6 and TNF-α) and serum cholesterol in MRL/lpr mice. The attenuated effects of JP may be associated with specific genera such as , , and . These findings suggest that JP can mitigate the adverse effects of GCs by modulating gut microbiota during the treatment of SLE with GCs.

References

de la Visitacion N, Robles-Vera I, Toral M, OValle F, Moleon J, Gomez-Guzman M . Lactobacillus fermentum CECT5716 prevents renal damage in the NZBWF1 mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus. Food Funct. 2020; 11(6):5266-5274. DOI: 10.1039/d0fo00578a. View

Yu Y, Liu Q, Li H, Wen C, He Z . Alterations of the Gut Microbiome Associated With the Treatment of Hyperuricaemia in Male Rats. Front Microbiol. 2018; 9:2233. PMC: 6156441. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02233. View

Cani P, de Vos W . Next-Generation Beneficial Microbes: The Case of . Front Microbiol. 2017; 8:1765. PMC: 5614963. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01765. View

Jiang S, Du L, Zhao Q, Su S, Huang S, Zhang J . Tropical postbiotics alleviate the disorders in the gut microbiota and kidney damage induced by ochratoxin A exposure. Food Funct. 2024; 15(8):3980-3992. DOI: 10.1039/d3fo05213c. View

Porta S, Danza A, Arias Saavedra M, Carlomagno A, Goizueta M, Vivero F . Glucocorticoids in . Ten Questions and Some Issues. J Clin Med. 2020; 9(9). PMC: 7563630. DOI: 10.3390/jcm9092709. View

Feng W, Ao H, Peng C, Yan D . Gut microbiota, a new frontier to understand traditional Chinese medicines. Pharmacol Res. 2019; 142:176-191. DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2019.02.024. View

Zhang Y, Liu Q, Yu Y, Wang M, Wen C, He Z . Early and Short-Term Interventions in the Gut Microbiota Affects Lupus Severity, Progression, and Treatment in MRL/lpr Mice. Front Microbiol. 2020; 11:628. PMC: 7171286. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00628. View

Ju T, Kong J, Stothard P, Willing B . Defining the role of Parasutterella, a previously uncharacterized member of the core gut microbiota. ISME J. 2019; 13(6):1520-1534. PMC: 6776049. DOI: 10.1038/s41396-019-0364-5. View

Costantini D, Marasco V, Moller A . A meta-analysis of glucocorticoids as modulators of oxidative stress in vertebrates. J Comp Physiol B. 2011; 181(4):447-56. DOI: 10.1007/s00360-011-0566-2. View

10.

Wang H, Wang G, Banerjee N, Liang Y, Du X, Boor P . Aberrant Gut Microbiome Contributes to Intestinal Oxidative Stress, Barrier Dysfunction, Inflammation and Systemic Autoimmune Responses in MRL/lpr Mice. Front Immunol. 2021; 12:651191. PMC: 8071869. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.651191. View

11.

Yue S, Wang W, Yu J, Chen Y, Shi X, Yan D . Gut microbiota modulation with traditional Chinese medicine: A system biology-driven approach. Pharmacol Res. 2019; 148:104453. DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2019.104453. View

12.

Jiao Y, Wu L, Huntington N, Zhang X . Crosstalk Between Gut Microbiota and Innate Immunity and Its Implication in Autoimmune Diseases. Front Immunol. 2020; 11:282. PMC: 7047319. DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.00282. View

13.

Zhang Y, Song F, Yang M, Chen C, Cui J, Xing M . Gastrointestinal Dysmotility Predisposes to Colitis through Regulation of Gut Microbial Composition and Linoleic Acid Metabolism. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024; 11(20):e2306297. PMC: 11132037. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202306297. View

14.

Nguyen-Khac E, Thevenot T, Piquet M, Benferhat S, Goria O, Chatelain D . Glucocorticoids plus N-acetylcysteine in severe alcoholic hepatitis. N Engl J Med. 2011; 365(19):1781-9. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1101214. View

15.

Lightstone L, Doria A, Wilson H, Ward F, Larosa M, Bargman J . Can we manage lupus nephritis without chronic corticosteroids administration?. Autoimmun Rev. 2017; 17(1):4-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.autrev.2017.11.002. View

16.

Li D, Pan Y, Xia X, Liang J, Liu F, Dou H . Bacteroides fragilis alleviates the symptoms of lupus nephritis via regulating CD1d and CD86 expressions in B cells. Eur J Pharmacol. 2020; 884:173421. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2020.173421. View

17.

Gao X, Wang J, Li M, Wang J, Lv J, Zhang L . Berberine attenuates XRCC1-mediated base excision repair and sensitizes breast cancer cells to the chemotherapeutic drugs. J Cell Mol Med. 2019; 23(10):6797-6804. PMC: 6787507. DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.14560. View

18.

Guo M, Wang H, Xu S, Zhuang Y, An J, Su C . Alteration in gut microbiota is associated with dysregulation of cytokines and glucocorticoid therapy in systemic lupus erythematosus. Gut Microbes. 2020; 11(6):1758-1773. PMC: 7524333. DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2020.1768644. View

19.

Tsokos G . Autoimmunity and organ damage in systemic lupus erythematosus. Nat Immunol. 2020; 21(6):605-614. PMC: 8135909. DOI: 10.1038/s41590-020-0677-6. View

20.

Edgar R . Search and clustering orders of magnitude faster than BLAST. Bioinformatics. 2010; 26(19):2460-1. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btq461. View