Li-Ching Chen ¹, Yu-Ping Cheng ², Chih-Yi Liu ³, Jiun-Wen Guo ⁴

Affiliations

1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei 10630, Taiwan.
2. Department of Dermatology, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei 10630, Taiwan.
3. Division of Pathology, Sijhih Cathay General Hospital, New Taipei City 22174, Taiwan.
4. Department of Medical Research, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei 10630, Taiwan.

ABSTRACT

(1) Background: Psoriasis is a T helper 1/T helper 17 cells-involved immune-mediated genetic disease. Lithospermic acid, one of the major phenolic acid compounds of Danshen, has antioxidation and anti-inflammation abilities. Due to the inappropriate molecular weight for topical penetration through the stratum corneum, lithospermic acid was loaded into the well-developed microemulsion delivery system for IMQ-induced psoriasis-like dermatitis treatment. (2) Methods: BALB/c mice were administered with topical imiquimod to induce psoriasis-like dermatitis. Skin barrier function, disease severity, histology assessment, autophagy-related protein expression, and skin and spleen cytokine expression were evaluated. (3) Results: The morphology, histopathology, and skin barrier function results showed that 0.1% lithospermic acid treatment ameliorated the IMQ-induced psoriasis-like dermatitis and restored the skin barrier function. The cytokines array results confirmed that 0.1% lithospermic acid treatment inhibited the cutaneous T helper-17/Interleukin-23 axis related cytokines cascades. (4) Conclusions: The results implied that lithospermic acid might represent a possible new therapeutic agent for psoriasis treatment.

Keywords: autophagy; inflammatory cytokines; lithospermic acid; psoriasis; skin barrier.

>Int J Mol Sci. 2022 May 31;23(11):6172. doi: 10.3390/ijms23116172.