Reduced psoriasis skin irritation symptoms through the effects of Chinese herbal medicines on planarians

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune skin disease that causes skin inflammation. While its underlying causes are unclear, current treatments involve topical drugs and ultraviolet radiation, which risks skin cancer. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), psoriasis involves dual yin-yang symptoms, which complicates treatment from a solely modern medicine perspective, as most pharmacological treatments can only address one type of symptom, not both. According to TCM theory, psoriasis is believed to stem from issues in the liver and lungs: excess liver fire induces inflammation and malnourished lung yin compromises immunity. We hypothesized that compounds supporting the liver and lungs would decrease inflammation in Dugesia dorotocephala planarians. Our study analyzed the causes of psoriasis through TCM theory to develop a less toxic treatment from the active compounds of two TCM herbal remedies, wogonin from Liver FireClear pills and butylidenephthalide (BP) from LungVigor pills. We induced inflammation on the planarian membranes of D. dorotocephala and assessed the reduction of inflammation symptoms through a fluorescence toxicity assay following the application of wogonin and BP. Compared with the untreated control group, the highest concentrations of wogonin (0.20 μg/mL) and BP (40 μg/mL) reduced 97% and 98% of induced inflammation, respectively. Our findings suggest that the TCM herbal Liver FireClear and LungVigor pills may alleviate inflammation. Our results encourage future use of integrative medicine and TCM diagnosis theory to better understand the underlying mechanisms of psoriasis.