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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.

Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1595111

This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Untapped Potential: Innovations in Drug RepurposingView all 15 articles

Honey-fried licorice decoction ameliorates atrial fibrillation susceptibility by inhibiting the NOX2-ROS-TGF-beta-1 pathway

Provisionally accepted
Yu QinYu Qin1Hao ZhiHao Zhi1Xiang WuXiang Wu2Zhiling TangZhiling Tang1Jialei FuJialei Fu1Jingyan WangJingyan Wang1Xiaodong ChenXiaodong Chen1Xueting CaiXueting Cai1Jianping ShenJianping Shen1*Peng CaoPeng Cao1*Qian ZhouQian Zhou1*
  • 1Affliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
  • 2Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

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Objective: Honey-fried licorice decoction (HFLD), a well-established traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used to treat atrial fibrillation (AF) in China. However, the specific cardioprotective mechanisms of HFLD in treating AF remain unclear. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of HFLD and validate the efficacy and mechanisms of action of HFLD in reducing AF susceptibility.Methods: Serum oxidative stress biomarker levels of healthy controls and patients with paroxysmal AF were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. The HFLD components were identified using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Wistar rats were intraperitoneally injected with isoprenaline (5 mg/kg) for 2 weeks to construct an AF rat model. The effect of HFLD on AF was assessed with the transesophageal atrial pacing technique and histopathological analysis. The expression levels of NOX2-ROS-TGF-1 signaling pathway related proteins were detected using western blot and dihydroethidium staining.Results: Our clinical trial verified that the expression of MDA increased, whereas SOD, CAT and GSH/GSSG ratio decreased in the serum of patients with paroxysmal AF compared with that in individuals with a normal sinus rhythm. Notably, HFLD treatment could reverse these imbalances. In rat experiments, HFLD was found to reduce oxidative stress and extracellular matrix deposition, thereby effectively reducing AF's induction rate and duration. Western blot analysis indicated that HFLD downregulated the expression of NOX2 and its regulatory proteins, leading to the inhibition of the downstream TGF-1-SMAD3 signaling pathway.HFLD may reduce AF susceptibility by inhibiting the NOX2-ROS-TGF-1 pathway, potentially providing new perspectives on AF treatment.

Keywords: Honey-fried licorice decoction, Atrial Fibrillation, Oxidative Stress, NOX2-ROS-TGF-1 pathway, Fibrosis

Received: 17 Mar 2025; Accepted: 10 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Qin, Zhi, Wu, Tang, Fu, Wang, Chen, Cai, Shen, Cao and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Jianping Shen, Affliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
Peng Cao, Affliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
Qian Zhou, Affliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material