REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1609211
This article is part of the Research TopicBone Aging and Osteoporosis: Recent Evidence Focusing on Plant-Based Natural Products - Volume IIView all 3 articles
Research Advances in the Study of Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula Granules on Signaling Pathway-Mediated Disease Mechanisms
Provisionally accepted
Zhuoxu Gu1,2,3,4
Zhonghao Wang1,2
Xianquan Zhang1,2
Guanghui Zhou1,2
Gui-Hong Liang1,2,3,4
Lingfeng ZENG1,2,3,4*
Jun Liu4,5*- 1The Second Clinical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
- 2State Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
- 3Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Research on Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
- 4The Research Team on Bone and Joint Degeneration and Injury of Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
- 5Guangdong Second Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
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As a modern dosage form of traditional Chinese medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula Granule (TCMFG) maximally retains active ingredientsmetabolites through standardized production processes, including dynamic countercurrent extraction and low-temperature concentration. This serves as a critical material basis for elucidating its multi-target regulatory mechanisms. Recent studies have highlighted the significant potential of TCMFG in treating complex diseases, such as inflammation, tumors, metabolic disorders, fibrosis, and orthopedic conditions like osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, by modulating signaling pathways such as TLR4/NF-κB, MAPK, NLRP3 inflammasome, PI3K/Akt/mTOR, Wnt/β-catenin, and TGF-β/Smads. For example, berberine alleviates acute lung injury by inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB pathway, while tetramethylpyrazine derived from Ligusticum chuanxiong HortChuanxiong granules mitigatesmitigate joint destruction in rheumatoid arthritis by suppressing MAPK signaling. Curcumin analogs inhibit tumor metabolic reprogramming via the PI3K/Akt pathway. Despite these advances, current research encounters challenges, such as single-component analysis, unclear synergistic mechanisms of compound mixtures, and insufficient clinical evidence for translational applications. In the future, integrating multi-omics technologies (e.g., metabolomics, spatial transcriptomics) will be crucial for exploring supramolecular synergistic effects of compound mixtures. Furthermore, large-scale clinical trials are necessary to validate its potential in precision medicine. This article systematically reviews the progress of TCMFG research in signaling pathway-mediated disease mechanisms and outlines future directions to enhance its application in modern precision medicine.
Keywords: Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula Granule, Signaling Pathways, mechanisms of disease, secondary metabolites, Orthopedic diseases, plant-based natural products
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 16 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gu, Wang, Zhang, Zhou, Liang, ZENG and Liu. 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:
Lingfeng ZENG, State Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510006, China
Jun Liu, The Research Team on Bone and Joint Degeneration and Injury of Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, 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.