Role of artesunate in autoimmune diseases and signaling pathways

Plain language summaryA medicine called artesunate (ART), which comes from a plant, is sometimes used to treat malaria. It was first introduced by Chinese scientist Tu Youyou, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine. Autoimmune diseases (ADs) occur when the body's immune system attacks its own cells. ART has shown promise in treating ADs. ART works as well as, or even better than, other normal medicines used for ADs. ART can act in many ways and could be a promising medicine for the treatment of ADs. Artesunate (ART) is a derivative of artemisinin. Compared with artemisinin, ART has excellent water solubility, high stability and oral bioavailability. In this review, the application of ART in classic autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and ulcerative colitis is summarized. ART exhibited similar or even better efficacy than other highly effective immunosuppressive agents, such as methotrexate and cyclophosphamide. In addition, ART exerts its pharmacological effects mainly by inhibiting the production of inflammatory factors, reactive oxygen species, autoantibodies and the migration of cells to reduce damage to tissues or organs. Moreover, ART widely affected the NF-& kappa;B, PI3K/Akt, JAK/STAT and MAPK pathways to exert pharmacological effects.