Evaluation of the anti-proliferative properties of selected psoriasis-treating Chinese medicines on cultured HaCaT cells

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder, which affects approximately 2–3% of the population worldwide. The current conventional therapy cannot offer satisfactory clinical results for most of the patients, largely due to the fact that many anti-psoriatic drugs have serious side effects and psoriasis is prone to developing drug resistance after long term exposure. Traditionally, Chinese herbal medicine has been extensively used to treat psoriasis and produced promising clinical results; however, its underlying mechanisms of action have not been systematically investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate those Chinese medicinal materials, which are commonly prescribed in Chinese medicine practice for psoriasis, for their anti-proliferative effects on HaCaT cells in vitro. Sixty Chinese medicinal materials were selected and extracted with 80% aqueous ethanol. The dry extracts were evaluated for their anti-proliferative activities by microplate SRB and MTT assays. Three Chinese medicinal materials i.e. the root of Rubia cordifolia L. (Rubiaceae), Realgar and the rhizome of Coptis chinensis Franch. (Ranunculaceae) were found to have significant anti-proliferative effects, with IC50 being 1.4, 6.6 and 23.4 μg/ml, respectively as measured by MTT assay. While Realgar was also able to modestly inhibit the growth of Hs-68 cells in vitro, Rubia cordifolia and Coptis chinensis did not exert cytotoxicity to this human fibroblast cell line.