The Promising Therapeutic Potential of Celastrol for Fibrotic Diseases: A Systematic Literature Review on Its Mechanism

Celastrol is a pentacyclic tripterine sourced from Tripterygium wilfordii hook root. Celastrol can exert certain biological functions such as antitumor, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative properties. Celastrol was shown from the previous literature to be capable of attenuating many fibrotic diseases. As the effects of various fibrotic diseases such as atherosclerosis, cancer, and ischemia affect more people with devastating repercussions, this warrants celastrol to be exploited as a phytotherapeutic drug. The purpose of this study is to review previous research and identify the proposed therapeutic mechanisms of celastrol in fibrotic diseases focusing on both the in vitro and in vivo experimental models. A systematic literature search on Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and ScienceDirect that included articles published between 2012 and 2022 was carried out using the keywords “celastrol”, “tripterine”, “fibrotic disease”, and “fibrosis”. After screening the initial search yield of 405 articles, 25 articles were included in this review. The study findings summarize the potential therapeutic mechanism of celastrol in the attenuation of fibrotic diseases in in vivo and in vitro experimental models. It shows that celastrol is useful as a treatment means. However, more studies are needed on the effects of celastrol on humans to carry out clinical trials to verify the long-term benefits of celastrol.