Abstract
BACKGROUND: Ulcer colitis (UC) is a chronic, nonspecific, and noninfectious inflammatory bowel disease. Recently, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been found to be closely associated with clinical inflammatory diseases. Achieving complete remission in patients with intermittent periods of activity followed by dormancy is challenging. Moreover, no study has explored the mechanism by which Kuicolong-yu enema decoction retains traditional Chinese medicine enemas to attenuate the inflammatory response in UC. AIM: To explore the mechanism by which Kuicolong-yu enema decoction retains traditional Chinese medicine enemas to attenuate the inflammatory response in UC. METHODS: This prospective clinical study included patients who met the exclusion criteria in 2020 and 2021. The patients with UC were divided into two groups (control and experimental). The peripheral blood of the experimental and control groups were collected under aseptic conditions. The expression of TLR4 protein, NF-κB, IL-6, and IL-17 was detected in the peripheral blood of patients in the experimental group and control group before and 1 month after taking the drug. Linear correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the expression level of TLR4 protein and the expression levels of downstream signal NF-κB and inflammatory factors IL-6 and IL-17, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the patient characteristics between the control and experimental groups. The results showed that the expression levels of TLR4 and NF-κB in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The levels of IL-6 and IL-17 in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The TLR4 protein expression in the experimental group was positively correlated with the expression level of downstream signal NF-κB and was positively correlated with the levels of downstream inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-17 (r = 0.823, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Kuicolong-yu enema decoction retains traditional Chinese medicine enema attenuates the inflammatory response of UC through the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway.