Endometriosis / Rhein / Emo)din

The exact mechanism through which emodin down-regulates the migration and invasion abilities of endometrial stromal cells was investigated by Zheng et al., (2020). They explored the theoretical basis of emodin in the treatment of endometriosis. After treated with emodin, the migration and invasion abilities of Endometriosis endometrial stromal cells (EESs) were significantly down-regulated, and the levels of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) and p-GSK-3β were statistically down-regulated in EESs.

Emodin inhibits the migration and invasion abilities of human endometrial stromal cells by reversing the EMT via ILK/GSK-3β pathway. So, emodin may be considered as a promising targeted therapy for endometriosis ^[1]. Research on the bacteriostatic properties of rhubarb’s monomers shows that free anthraquinones (including emodin, rhein, aloe-emodin) possess significant bacteriostatic activity against a broad spectrum of bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Lactobacillus and Escherichia coli ^[2,3]. Studies involving lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 cells have shown that rhein inhibits the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6 [IL-6], IL-1β and tumour necrosis factor-α [TNF-α]), and reduces NF-κB p65 levels. In LPS + ATP-induced RAW264.7 macrophages, rhein also diminished the expression of NALP3 inflammasome and cleaved IL-1β, suggesting that rhein’s anti-inflammatory effects may stem from its ability to inhibit both NF-κB and NALP3 inflammasome pathways ^[4].

References:

1.Emodin Reverses the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition of Human Endometrial Stromal Cells by Inhibiting ILK/GSK-3β Pathway. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2020 Sep 10;14:3663-3672. doi: 10.2147/DDDT.S262816.

2.The application of rhubarb concoctions in traditional Chinese medicine and its compounds, processing methods, pharmacology, toxicology and clinical research. Front Pharmacol. 2024 Aug 7;15:1442297. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1442297.

3.The health benefits of emodin, a natural anthraquinone derived from rhubarb-A summary update. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 22 (17), 9522. 10.3390/ijms22179522

4. Rhein attenuates inflammation through inhibition of NF-κB and NALP3 inflammasome in vivo and in vitro . Drug Des. Devel Ther. 11, 1663–1671. 10.2147/dddt.S133069