Liver fibrosis is a common pathological process that many chronic liver diseases must undergo to develop into cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver fibrosis is regulated by a variety of cytokines and signal pathways during its occurrence and development. In recent years, a large number of studies showed that ferroptosis is closely related to liver fibrosis. Compared with normal liver, the levels of irons and lipid peroxidation in the liver with fibrosis are significantly increased. Therefore, ferroptosis may be a potential target for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of liver fibrosis. This review summarizes the role of ferroptosis in liver fibrosis, thus to provide new ideas for the treatment of liver fibrosis.

S-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (Skp2) is one of the components of E3 ubiquitin ligase, which can induce proteasome-mediated proteolysis or regulate labeled substrates to promote cell proliferation and migration and inhibit cell apoptosis and senescence by connecting the ubiquitin chains of K48 and K63 to different substrates. Skp2 is also a potential drug target in a variety of fibrotic diseases, is highly expressed in a variety of fibrotic diseases, and regulates the occurrence and progression of these diseases. This paper reviews Skp2's structure, downstream targets, and cellular regulation and then focuses on research progress on Skp2 in various fibrotic diseases, such as liver fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, renal fibrosis, corneal fibrosis, and cardiac fibrosis, which may help provide a new research approaches for clinical development of Skp2-targeted antifibrotic drugs.

To provide new ideas for further research and treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver fibrosis, we used bioinformatics technology to search the gene microarray data related to this disease and identified differentially expressed genes and potential therapeutic drugs. Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was used to search the entry of "nonalcoholic fatty liver fibrosis"; the GSE109345 microarray data was downloaded, the differentially expressed genes in the control group and the fibrosis model group were screened with the BioJupie analysis platform, and GO function, KEGG pathway, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis and visualization were conducted for the differentially expressed genes. Finally, through the Connectivity Map (CMap) data platform, compounds with potential efficacy on nonalcoholic fatty liver fibrosis were predicted. A total of 109 differentially expressed genes were screened, including 70 up-regulated genes and 39 down-regulated genes. Functional analysis showed that differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in protein kinase B signal transduction, extracellular domain function, small molecule binding and other functions; pathway analysis showed that these genes participated in retinol metabolism, steroid hormone synthesis, and arachidonic acid metabolism; PPI network analysis showed that metallopeptidase inhibitor 1 (TIMP1), chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), recombinant signal regulatory protein beta 1 (SIRPB1), and cytochrome P450 (CYP) were the main genes related to nonalcoholic fatty liver fibrosis. CMap analysis showed that pioglitazone, midodrine, arecoline and other compounds had potential efficacy in nonalcoholic fatty liver fibrosis. Thus, by screening for differentially expressed genes, related genes and potential therapeutic compounds effective in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver fibrosis can be identified, as well as new ideas and approaches for the clinical treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver fibrosis.

In this study, we investigated the effect and mechanism of glaucocalyxin A on transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)-induced differentiation of lung fibroblasts by Western blotting, cellular immunofluorescence and collagen gel contraction assays. We monitored the phosphorylation of Smad3, measured extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) 1/2 and glycogen synthase kinse3β (Ser9) activity and the level of β-catenin to elucidate the role of glaucocalyxin A. The results show that glaucocalyxin A significantly decreased the expression of α-smooth muscle actin in lung fibroblasts; glaucocalyxin A remarkably reduced the formation of filaments and collagen gel contraction of lung fibroblasts; glaucocalyxin A notably down-regulated the production of fibronectin; glaucocalyxin A did not affect the phosphorylation level of Smad3 and ERK1/2; glaucocalyxin A markedly inhibited the phosphorylation of GSK3β (Ser9) and the levels of β-catenin; a GSK3β (S9A) mutant significantly inhibited lung fibroblast differentiation; and SKL2001, a β-catenin activator, partly reversed the inhibition of lung fibroblast differentiation by glaucocalyxin A. These results suggest that glaucocalyxin A significantly inhibits the differentiation of lung fibroblasts, which is related to the down-regulation of GSK3β/β-catenin signaling.

The mechanism of Platycodon grandiflorum in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis was examined by integrated pharmacology network with animal experiment validation. Compositions and targets of Platycodon grandiflorum were collected utilizing databases such as TCMSP and Swiss Target Prediction, whereas pulmonary fibrosis targets were obtained using GeneCards, OMIM, Disgenet, and Drugbank databases. These datasets were merged in order to identify prospective Platycodon grandiflorum targets for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis. The "drug-component-target-disease" network was constructed with Cytoscape software, and the interaction relationship between potential targets was produced; they were coupled with the String platform to create the PPI network while also doing topological analysis. Then, using R software and the Bioconductor biological information software package, we conduct GO and KEGG enrichment analysis to estimate the therapeutic mechanism. A mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis was constructed for pathological staining, ELISA, lung function, qRT-PCR, and Western blot to validate the results of the network pharmacology. There are 289 putative active components of Platycodon grandiflorum, and 1 129 disease targets for pulmonary fibrosis, for a total of 65 drug-compound-disease common targets. The GO enrichment analysis revealed 1 575 items, whereas the KEGG enrichment analysis yielded 146 entries. The phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase-protein kinase B (PI3K-AKT) signaling pathway, the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling system, and the interleukin-17 (IL-17) signaling pathway were enriched. In animal experiments, Platycodon grandiflorum was found to decrease lung inflammation and collagen deposition in mice with pulmonary fibrosis. According to Western blot results, the expression of PI3K-AKT signaling pathway-related proteins p-PI3K and p-AKT was down-regulated in a dose-dependent manner after Platycodon grandiflorum therapy of pulmonary fibrosis mice. When p-AKT was suppressed, P21 expression was reduced, indicating that Platycodon grandiflorum may control the expression of PI3K-AKT pathway-related proteins to alter cell senescence while treating mice with pulmonary fibrosis. This study uses network pharmacology to identify the targets and pathways of Platycodon grandiflorum against pulmonary fibrosis and conducts related animal experimental validation, providing a foundation for an in-depth discussion of the therapeutic mechanism of Platycodon grandiflorum against pulmonary fibrosis.

Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a reprogramming process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition, in which epithelial cells lose polarity and intercellular adhesion and acquire stronger migration and invasion ability similar to mesenchymal cells. EMT is a critical step during the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. Lung epithelial cells can differentiate into myofibroblasts through EMT, which accelerates the fibrosis process. In recent years, a large number of studies have shown that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are involved in the EMT process of lung epithelial cells, at the same time, some natural medicines were found to prevent and treat pulmonary fibrosis by intervening in ncRNAs related to pulmonary fibrosis. In this review, we summarize the expression change and biological function of vital ncRNAs in EMT progression during pulmonary fibrosis, as well as the research progress of EMT related ncRNA mediated by natural medicines on pulmonary fibrosis, aiming to provide new insights into the research of ncRNAs and the exploration of new pharmacological targets of natural medicine.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a fibrous disease. At present, its pathogenesis has not been fully elucidated and there is no drug with definite therapeutic effect. After four stages of development, antibody drugs are becoming a new hotspot in drug research and development with their own advantages. A number of drugs have entered the stage of clinical trials. Based on this, this review summarizes the antibody drugs for the clinical stage of clinical research of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, in order to summarize the development of antibody drugs, and provide certain bases and ideas for the development of antibody drugs.

This article intended to build a component-target network to screen the effective components of Compound Suanzaoren Decoction, and to establish an efficient and rapid method for the determination of effective components. 103 compounds in the Compound Suanzaoren Decoction were identified by HPLC-Q-TOF MS/MS. 27 potential effective substances were analyzed by network pharmacology. The first six components with the largest degree were selected as effective components, including neomangiferin, mangiferin, ferulic acid, senkyunolide Ⅰ, spinosin, and 6'''-feruloylspinosin. A UHPLC method was established for determination. The chromatographic separation was performed on a Waters CORTECS T3 column (2.1 mm×150 mm, 1.6 μm) with the mobile phase of 0.1% phosphoric acid solution and acetonitrile. The results showed that the specificity was good with no interference for the chromatographic peaks. The linear was excellent within the scope of investigation, with the values of r higher than 0.999 0 for all analytes. The method had been verified to have good sensitivity, precision, accuracy, durability and stability. Therefore, the results showed that the method established was suitable for the screening and determination of effective components in Compound Suanzaoren Decoction, which provided a basis for the quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine.

Clarithromycin (CLA) belongs to the second generation macrolide antibiotic. The commercial crystal form of CLA is form Ⅱ, and it exhibits the poor compressibility during the tablet pressing process. Since the crystal form of drugs has a significant effect on their mechanical properties, from the perspective of crystallography, this study investigated the difference of the compressibility between CLA form Ⅰ and form Ⅱ, and analyzed the mechanism that led to such difference. On the other hand, from the perspective of pharmaceutics, we also studied the effect of filler on the compressibility of form Ⅱ. It was found that CLA form Ⅰ had improved plastic deformation than form Ⅱ because of the slip planes in its crystal structure leading to the better compressibility. Moreover, microcrystalline cellulose, pre-gelatinized starch and lactose monohydrate could improve the compressibility of form Ⅱ, and microcrystalline cellulose showed the best effect. We improve the compressibility of CLA from crystal form and filler, and also lay a foundation for the development of CLA solid preparations.

We investigated the therapeutic effect and mechanism of isoforskolin on bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. The animal welfare and experimental process were in accordance with the Regulations of Animal Ethics Committee of Kunming Medical University. Male Kunming mice were randomly divided into five groups: sham operation group (intratracheal instillation of normal saline), bleomycin group (intratracheal instillation of bleomycin 5 mg·kg^-1), positive drug control group (intratracheal instillation of bleomycin 5 mg·kg^-1 + intraperitoneal injection of dexamethasone sodium phosphate 2.5 mg·kg^-1), isoforskolin (2.5 and 10 mg·kg^-1) groups (intratracheal instillation of bleomycin 5 mg·kg^-1 + intragastric administration of isoforskolin 2.5 and 10 mg·kg^-1). The method of drug administration was once a day for 28 days. On the 7^th and 28^th day of the experiment, the mice were killed, and the lung tissue and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples were collected. Hematoxylin eosin (H & E) staining and Masson staining were used to detect the pathological changes of lung tissue. The content of hydroxyproline in lung tissue was detected by alkaline hydrolysis method. The levels of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin 1β (IL-1β) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The expressions of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in lung tissue were detected by Western blot. The experimental results showed that compared with the bleomycin group, the degree of inflammation and fibrosis in the lung tissue of mice in 10 mg·kg^-1 isoforskolin group was significantly reduced, the content of hydroxyproline in the lung tissue was decreased, the levels of TNF-α and IL-1β in BALF were decreased, and the protein expressions of TGF-β1 and CTGF in the lung tissue were downregulated, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The results suggest that isoforskolin can inhibit the release of inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β, downregulate the protein expression of profibrotic factors TGF-β1 and CTGF, and exert anti pulmonary fibrosis effect through both anti-inflammatory and anti fibrotic effect.