Celastrol and its Role in Chronic Diseases
Celastrol, a triterpenoid derived from traditional Chinese medicinal plants, has anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer activities. Celastrol has shown preventive/therapeutic effects in experimental models of several chronic diseases. These include chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematous, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis), neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), atherosclerosis, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer. Celastrol modulates intricate cellular pathways and networks associated with disease pathology, and it interrupts or redirects the aberrant cellular and molecular events so as to limit disease progression and to facilitate recovery, where feasible. The major cell signaling pathways modulated by celastrol include the NF-kB pathway, MAPK pathway, JAK/STAT pathway, PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, and anti-oxidant defense mechanisms. Furthermore, celastrol modulates cell proliferation, apoptosis, proteasome activity, heat-shock protein responses, innate and adaptive immune responses, angiogenesis, and bone remodeling. Current understanding of the mechanisms of action of celastrol and information about its disease-modulating activities in experimental models have set the stage for testing celastrol in clinical studies as a therapeutic agent for several chronic human diseases.
Celastrol, a natural triterpene, has anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer activities. Besides targeting multiple cell signaling pathways, celastrol modulates several other pathophysiological processes involved in chronic inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Most of this information on celastrol is based on in vitro model systems in the laboratory and preclinical studies in animal models of human diseases. These studies have also offered mechanistic insights into the use of celastrol-containing herbal extracts from celastraceae family of plants for the treatment of some of these disorders in the traditional systems of medicine. Taken together, this knowledge has encouraged the clinical testing of T. wilfordii and related herbal preparations. In particular, the testing of T. wilfordii in RA patients has shown promising results. It is hoped that in the near future, T. wilfordii and similar other natural products might be approved for use in mainstream therapy as adjuncts for, or in place of, conventional allopathic drugs for RA and some other chronic diseases. This would be a significant contribution to the therapeutic arsenal against several chronic debilitating human diseases.
