Dai WX, Li HW, Guo W, Zheng LY, Zhou HX. From traditional formula to modern mechanism: How Anwei decoction alleviates chronic atrophic gastritis via regulating the gut-stomach axis. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(19): 117151 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i19.117151]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Huo-Xiang Zhou, Henan Institute of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, No. 40 North Daxue Road, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China. huoxiang_zhou@zzu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
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Editorial
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
May 21, 2026 (publication date) through May 21, 2026
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Publication Name
World Journal of Gastroenterology
ISSN
1007-9327
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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Dai WX, Li HW, Guo W, Zheng LY, Zhou HX. From traditional formula to modern mechanism: How Anwei decoction alleviates chronic atrophic gastritis via regulating the gut-stomach axis. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(19): 117151 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i19.117151]
Wen-Xin Dai, Hao-Wei Li, Wei Guo, Li-Yun Zheng, Huo-Xiang Zhou, Henan Institute of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China
Co-first authors: Wen-Xin Dai and Hao-Wei Li.
Co-corresponding authors: Li-Yun Zheng and Huo-Xiang Zhou.
Author contributions: Zhou HX and Zheng LY conceived and designed the outline of the editorial, and reviewed and submitted the final manuscript, contributed equally as co-corresponding authors; Dai WX and Li HW contributed to the writing, editing, and revising the first draft of the manuscript, contributed equally as co-first authors; Guo W, Dai WX, and Zhou HX critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
AI contribution statement: We only used the DeepSeek V4, an AI tool, but strictly for language refinement purposes. No content in this thesis has been generated or partially written by AI. We only used the DeepSeek V4 exclusively to polish the language of the manuscript. It was employed solely for improving the clarity and readability of the language. To address this issue, we engaged a professional proofreading service to review the text and provided a proofreading certificate. AI tool did not participate in design of the study or interpretation of its results. No images included in the manuscript.
Supported by Key Scientific and Technological Project of Henan Province, No. 242102310041 and No. 252102310044; and Basic Research Foundation of Henan Institute of Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, No. 2024BP0301.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Corresponding author: Huo-Xiang Zhou, Henan Institute of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, No. 40 North Daxue Road, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan Province, China. huoxiang_zhou@zzu.edu.cn
Received: December 1, 2025 Revised: January 7, 2026 Accepted: February 25, 2026 Published online: May 21, 2026 Processing time: 169 Days and 4.9 Hours
Abstract
Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) represents a significant precancerous gastric condition with limited effective treatments that can reverse pathological progression. Traditional Chinese medicine presents a multi-targeted therapeutic approach for CAG. Recently, Qin et al published a study in World Journal of Gastroenterology, which presented the therapeutic potential of Anwei decoction (AWD) in a rat model of CAG. They demonstrated that AWD alleviated gastric mucosal injury through dual mechanisms. First it directly suppressed the NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 inflammasome. Second, it reshaped gut microbiota and its metabolites, thereby exerting distal regulation via the “gut-stomach axis”. This study not only elucidated the multi-component, multi-target action characteristics of AWD, but also paved new pathways for developing treatment strategies for complex gastrointestinal diseases based on the “microbiome-metabolism-immunity” network. This commentary briefly outlined the clinical significance and current therapeutic limitations of CAG as a precancerous lesion, emphasized the integration of traditional Chinese medicine with multi-omics technologies and presented future research directions, involving clinical translation and identification of active components.
Core Tip: Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is a precancerous condition, while no treatments are currently available for this disease that can reverse its progression. Qin et al’s study revealed that the traditional Chinese medicine formula Anwei decoction alleviated CAG through directly inhibiting NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 inflammasome activity and reshaping the gut microbiota-metabolite axis. Their research marked the first systematic elucidation of the biological mechanism through which Anwei decoction mediated its therapeutic effects via the “gut-stomach axis”. The findings provided cogent evidence for the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine for CAG and highlighted the promise of multi-omics integration in revealing how traditional medical formulas are effective.
