Majoon Ushba alleviated IL-17A sensitized keratinocyte ferroptosis via JAK-2-STAT-3 signaling axis and reversed imiquimod induced psoriasiform inflammation
CONTEXT: Psoriasis is a relapsing autoimmune disease exacerbated by aberrant interleukin (IL)-17 A activity. Majoon Ushba, a unani polyherbal formulation implicated in clinical cases of psoriasis lacks immunopharmacological validation. OBJECTIVE: ablation of JAK-2/STAT-3 pathway. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HaCaT cells were stimulated with IL-17A to assess the activation of the JAK-2-STAT-3 pathway. The STAT-3 inhibitor, S3I-201, was used to confirm the role of the STAT-3 axis in keratinocyte ferroptosis. Majoon Ushba pretreatment was assessed to determine its efficacy in alleviating keratinocyte ferroptosis. An imiquimod (IMQ)-induced psoriasis mouse model was used to evaluate the pre-clinical efficacy of Majoon Ushba. Furthermore, prior high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) profiling was leveraged for in-silico docking analysis to identify the binding affinities of key phytoconstituents with IL-17RA and STAT-3. RESULTS: results, the computational findings offer initial evidence that the polyherbal formulation may influence the IL-17A/JAK-2-STAT-3 signaling pathway. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our preliminary findings reveal a plausible mechanistic basis for the anti-psoriatic efficacy of Majoon Ushba, warranting larger clinical trials in psoriasis patient cohorts.
Authors
- Ghazala Javed (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4298-0401)
- Ritu Karwasra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5473-5553)
- Mahaboobkhan Rasool (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4980-5355)
- Sagnika Bhattacharjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7468-6481)
- Pawan Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9198-951X)
- Arulkumaran Rithvik
- Gouri H Illanad
- Zaheer Ahmed
Institutions
- Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (IN)
- Vellore Institute of Technology University (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Pharmaceutical Biology
- Published
- 2026-04-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13880209.2026.2654904
- Primary Topic
- Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine