ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1599810
Standardized aqueous extract of Abutilon theophrasti Medic. ameliorates oxidative stress and inflammatory responses against hydrochloric acid/ethanol-induced gastric ulcer in rats
Provisionally accepted
- Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
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The herb Abutilon theophrasti Medic. (AT, Qingma in Chinese), a widely distributed medicinal plant in various regions worldwide, is commonly used in China for treating inflammatory diseases in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract such as dysentery. However, the pharmacological basis of this herb for treating peptic ulcer, also an inflammatory condition in the GI tract, remains insufficiently understood.To investigate the ameliorating effects of a standardized aqueous extract of AT (ATAE) on experimental gastric ulcer (GU) in rats, and explore whether the human GU-associated molecules/signaling pathways obtained using bioinformatics are involved in the drug's efficacy for molecular mechanism elucidation. Results: A total of 26 compounds were identified in ATAE, including 10 flavonoids, 7 organic acids, 5 amines and 4 others. The content of rutin in ATAE was 0.38%. In vivo, ATAE markedly attenuated the HCl/EtOH-induced GU and mucosal injuries; decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory/oxidant mediators including TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and MDA; increased anti-oxidant mediators of SOD and GSH-Px; inhibited the phosphorylation/activation of Akt, IκBα and NF-κB p65 in gastric tissues. In vitro, ATAE treatment significantly lowered productions of NO and ROS; attenuated nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65; modulated mRNA expression levels of NF-κB-regulated mediators including TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, MnSOD, GSH-Px, CAT, VCAM-1 and MMP-9. For the bioinformatic study, a total of 24 hub genes were screened and found to be predominantly enriched in oxidative stress-and inflammatory responses -associated pathways; quercetin and caffeic acid were identified as the most effective substances responsible for ATAE's anti-GU effects. Overall, the presented results as well greatly supported and validated the essential inflammation and oxidation events implicated in the mechanistic investigation using bioinformatics. HCl/EtOH-induced GU in rats, which are probably associated with inhibiting ROS/Akt/NF-κB signaling pathway. The novel findings of this study, for the first time, provide scientific justifications for the use of AT in treating peptic ulcer. Future studies are warranted to elucidate the clinical potential and a more comprehensive understanding of underlying mechanisms of AT in treating GU.
Keywords: AT, Abutilon theophrasti Medic., GU, gastric ulcer, bioinformatics, RAW264.7 cells, ROS/Akt/NF-κB
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 21 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guo, Xu, Zhu, Zhu, Zhang, Gong, Liu, Wang, Xu and Dai. 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: Liping Dai, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
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