Abstract
Agkistrodon in Chinese medicine has long been used as an effective treatment against rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The present research further investigated the effects of peptides extracted from the crude Agkistrodon on the RA rat model. Extracted peptides were separated by parameter-optimized ion-exchange chromatography (IEC), peptide fractions were further analysed by MALDI-TOF/TOF MS, and nano-LC-MS/MS acquired mass spectra were further characterized using Mascot software, which ranks the best matches in the NCBI database. RT-PCR results in RAW264.7 cells indicated that Agkistrodon peptide components had inhibitory effects against inflammatory cytokines. The therapeutic efficacy of Agkistrodon peptides was evaluated on the Wistar rats with collagen-induced arthritis. Symptom relief and reduced cartilage destruction and bone erosion were observed, which can be explained by the direct suppression of inflammatory cytokines in the joints. Agkistrodon peptides downregulate the expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, which may alleviate cartilage destruction and bone erosion, thus relieving symptoms of RA.