Optimizing Personalized Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis Using a Novel Drug Combination of Bioactive Chemical Constituents Derived from a Classic Chinese Herbal Formula

Personalized therapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) based on traditional Chinese medicine cold and hot syndromes is selection of the best treatment for an individual patient. Wutou Decoction (WTD) is one of the classic Chinese herbal formulae which achieve favorable therapeutic response in treating RA-cold syndrome. Microarray analysis based on the adjuvant induced arthritis model combined with characteristics of RA and cold/hot syndromes was performed to screen RA-cold and RA-hot-syndrome-related genes, as well as WTD effect genes. We aimed to identify bioactive compounds (BACs) of WTD against RA-cold syndrome, and to evaluate the anti-RA effects of the BAC combination by the combination of microarray analysis, network analysis, chemical profiling, absorption-distribution-metabolism-excretion evaluation, molecular docking simulation and in vivo/vitro experimental validation.