Astragaloside IV:

May represent an alternative therapeutic approach for the treatment of patients with allergic rhinitis. It may attenuate allergic rhinitis via regulating the expressions of the transcription factors GATA-23, RORγt, T-bet and Foxp3, which commit T helper cells to the Th1 phenotype (Li et al., 2017).

In addition, it has been reported that astragaloside IV modulates eosinophil activation and trafficking in response to house dust mite allergen. Astragalosides treatment inhibited the counts of eosinophil in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in ovalbumin (OVA)-induced animal asthma model, reduced the production of IL-4 and IL-13, and upregulated the frequency of CD4þCD25þ regulatory T cells and the mRNA expression of Foxp3 (Qi et al., 2017).

Relieves, by oral treatment, the swelling induced by the intra-articular injection of IL-1β, protected against IL-1β-induced damage of cartilage proteoglycan synthesis and chondrocyte proliferation, as well as inhibited joint inflammation and IL-1β, TNF-α and NO production in macrophages in rat adjuvant-induced arthritis (Qi et al., 2017).

Moreover, polysaccharides might attenuate the pathological progression or rheumatoid arthritis by exerting the pro-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory effects by regulating the PI3/Akt/mTOR-authophagy pathway and by reduction of PERK phosphorylation (Meng et al., 2017; Lu et al., 2016).

Flavonoids also exerts a protective effect against arthritis, in vivo, by regulating OPG/RANKL/NF-κB pathway (Liu et al., 2017).

Reduces inflammation by inhibiting endoplasmic reticulum stress and disrupting the crosstalk between autophagy and the PERK-eIF2α pathway, and these actions are positive for treating inflammatory pulmonary diseases (Dong et al., 2017).

Produces neuroprotective effect. It attenuates cognitive impairments induced by cerebral ischemia and reperfusion, via anti-inflammatory mechanisms (Li et al., 2017).

In addition, polysaccharides may represent a therapeutic approach for treating inflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis (Lv et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2016).