Tripterygium wilfordii contains "targeted drugs"？

Tripterygium wilfordii contains "targeted drugs" that can accurately attack cancer cells？

Tripterygium wilfordii is a genus of Celastraceae Tripterygium wilfordii family. It has certain toxic effects, besides, Tripterygium wilfordii could promote blood circulation, relieve swelling and pain, kill insects and detoxifying. It is widely used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and lupus erythematosus.

Although tripterygium wilfordii has a remarkable effect in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, at the same time, tripterygium wilfordii poisoning incidents occur many times, so the 2015 edition of the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia" has been removed from the list. However, some studies have found that tripterygium wildordii may also have anti-cancer effects.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Cancer Institute of the United States pointed out that triptolide, the main active ingredient in tripterygium wildordii, can make cancer cells with mutations in the cancer gene IDH1 die from oxidative stress by inhibiting the NRF2-related glutathione synthesis pathway. It should be known that IDH1 is currently a very "difficult" mutation-targeting drug in clinical practice.

IDH1 refers to isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 mutation, which is a common gene mutation in malignant tumors such as glioma, acute myeloid leukemia and chondrosarcoma. At present, IDH1 mutant enzyme inhibitors have been developed, but they have good efficacy only for blood tumors, and poor efficacy for solid tumors such as glioma. Triptolide in tripterygium wildordii has a good inhibitory effect on IDH1-mutated glioma and IDH1-mutated brain tumor cells.

However, this does not mean that taking tripterygium wilfordii directly can fight cancer, and tripterygium wilfordii itself has strong toxic side effects, especially damaging the heart, liver, digestive system and reproductive system. When taking tripterygium wildordii, you should strictly follow the doctor's advice, and you should not take medicine or change the amount of medicine without authorization, so as not to bring serious harm to the body.

From the traditional Chinese medicine of Tripterygium wildordii, is it magic medicine or poison?

Tripterygium wildordii is a traditional Chinese medicine, containing diterpene, triterpene, sesquiterpene polyol ester, sesquiterpene alkaloids and lignans, among which tripterpene (diterpene) and celastrol (triterpene) have been the most studied in modern medicine and have a long history of use in China. In traditional Chinese medicine, the roots and rattan can be used to reduce inflammation, relieve pain, strengthen muscles and regulate the immune system. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that celastrol in tripterygium wilfordii extract have significant ani-inflammatory, anti-tumor and immunosuppressive effects.

The team of Sotirios Kampranis and Yong Zhao at the University of Copenhagen designed and developed a new strategy for the biosynthesis of celastrol by yeast, with a yield of 21.4%.

At present, the research has been published in Nature Chemistry under the title "Biosynthesis and biotechnological production of the anti-obesity gent celastrol."