Research advances in the treatment of arthritis from natural products(2014-present)

Arthritis is one of the most common inflammatory diseases, primarily including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and gouty arthritis, and significantly affects the quality of life of people. Natural products are components or metabolites of animals, plants, marine organisms and microorganisms that have been reported to have beneficial effects in the treatment of arthritis, both domestically and internationally. Natural products show great advantages in drug discovery due to their rich skeletal diversity and structural complexity, as well as their multi-effect, multi-target and low-toxicity properties compared to conventional small molecule medicine. However, unclear mechanisms have largely limited the development and clinical application of NPs. This review provides an overview of recent experimental studies conducted over the past decade on natural medicine for the treatment of arthritis, focusing on key natural products with therapeutic effects on osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and gouty arthritis. This article reviews the effects and molecular mechanisms of natural products acting on different cells to treat arthritis. In addition, this review proposes insight into the prospects of natural product research in this area, which is of significant importance for advancing natural product-based arthritis treatments.