Astragaloside IV promotes the pyroptosis of airway smooth muscle cells in childhood asthma by suppressing HMGB1/RAGE axis to inactivate NF-κb pathway

Childhood asthma, a common chronic childhood disease, leads to high mortality and morbidity in the world. Airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) is a group of multifunctional cells that has been found to be correlated with the pathogenesis of asthma. Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) is a compound extracted from Astragalus membranaceus, which has the anti-asthmatic effect. However, the role of molecular mechanisms regulated by AS-IV in the biological processes of ASMCs in asthma remains unclear. Our current study aims to investigate the downstream molecular mechanism of AS-IV in modulating the aberrant proliferation and pyroptosis of ASMCs in asthma. At first, we determined that the viability of ASMCs could be efficiently suppressed by AS-IV treatment (200 μM). Moreover, AS-IV promoted the pyroptosis and suppressed PDGF-BB-induced aberrant proliferation. Through mechanism investigation, we confirmed that AS-IV could suppress high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) expression and prevent it from entering the cytoplasm. Subsequently, AS-IV blocked the interaction between HMGB1 and advanced glycosylation end product-specific receptor (RAGE) to inactivate NF-κB pathway. Finally, in vivo experiments demonstrated that AS-IV treatment can alleviate the lung inflammation in asthma mice. Collectively, AS-IV alleviates asthma and suppresses the pyroptosis of AMSCs through blocking HMGB1/RAGE axis to inactivate NF-κB pathway.