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De novo engineering of nanoformulation from traditional Chinese medicine mixtures for psoriasis

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Abstract

Nanotechnology has been widely applied in the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Interestingly, we found that nanostructures intrinsically existed in 12 clinically applied TCM mixtures (TCMMs). However, the role of these nanostructures in TCMMs and their potential value in improving the development of TCMMs remain unknown. Taking Qingxuechushi mixture as an example, we demonstrated that nanoparticles could be the most efficient part through the pharmacodynamics study on psoriasis model. By imitating the physical properties and chemical composition of isolated nanoparticles in Qingxuechushi mixture, a novel nanoformulation with definite components and good therapeutic effect was developed, which not only mimicked the prescription composition rules in the original TCMMs but also possessed the advantage of nanotechnology. This novel nanoformulation could notably alleviate the psoriasis-like manifestations and reduce the levels of pro-inflammatory factors in serum in the psoriasis mouse model. This work organically integrates the advantages of TCMMs and nanotechnology, which may provide a new approach and inspiration for the development of TCM.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 82173760 and 82104098), the Program for HUST Academic Frontier Youth Team (No. 2018QYTD13), and Scientific Research Project of Wuhan Municipal Health Commission (No. WX20Q16). Thanks to the TEM provided by the Analytical and Testing Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

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  1. Yang Li and Dan Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tongji School of Pharmacy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Yang Li, Tianzi Shi, Yulin Yu, Yinmei Tian, Qi Xie, Li Kong, Conglian Yang & Zhiping Zhang

  2. Department of Pharmacy, Wuhan No.1 Hospital, Tongji Medical School, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, China

    Dan Zhang

  3. Department of Pharmacy, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical School, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430077, China

    Jingyu Shi

  4. Hubei Engineering Research Centre for Novel Drug Delivery System, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Zhiping Zhang

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  1. Yang Li
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Correspondence to Conglian Yang or Zhiping Zhang.

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Li, Y., Zhang, D., Shi, T. et al. De novo engineering of nanoformulation from traditional Chinese medicine mixtures for psoriasis. Nano Res. 16, 5279–5291 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5199-0

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