Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory lung disease, causes approximately 3 million deaths each year; however, its pathological mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we examined whether HX110B, a mixture of Taraxacum officinale, Dioscorea batatas, and Schizonepeta tenuifolia extracts, could suppress porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE)-induced emphysema in mice and its mechanism of action. The therapeutic efficacy of HX110B was tested using a PPE-induced emphysema mouse model and human bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B. In vivo data showed that the alveolar wall and air space expansion damaged by PPE were improved by HX110B administration. HX110B also effectively suppresses the expression levels of pro-inflammatory mediators including IL-6, IL-1β, MIP-2, and iNOS, while stimulating the expression of lung protective factors such as IL-10, CC16, SP-D, and sRAGE. Moreover, HX110B improved the impaired OXPHOS subunit gene expression. In vitro analysis revealed that HX110B exerted its effects by activating the PPAR-RXR signaling pathways. Overall, our data demonstrated that HX110B could be a promising therapeutic option for COPD treatment.
Copyright: © 2024 Lee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.