Xu T, Hou WX, Yang ST, Shao YP, Wang J, Han TT, Li JN. Danggui-Baishao herb pair protects against dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis by modulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(5): 113024 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i5.113024]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jing-Nan Li, Department of Gastroenterology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Hospital, No. 1 Shuaifuyuan, Wangfujing, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, China. jnli2020@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
Feb 7, 2026 (publication date) through Jan 29, 2026
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Journal Information of This Article
Publication Name
World Journal of Gastroenterology
ISSN
1007-9327
Publisher of This Article
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Xu T, Hou WX, Yang ST, Shao YP, Wang J, Han TT, Li JN. Danggui-Baishao herb pair protects against dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis by modulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(5): 113024 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v32.i5.113024]
Tian Xu, Wei-Xin Hou, Sun-Ting Yang, Yu-Pei Shao, Jing Wang, Tao-Tao Han, Jing-Nan Li, Department of Gastroenterology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, China
Co-corresponding authors: Tao-Tao Han and Jing-Nan Li.
Author contributions: Xu T performed the research and wrote the original draft; Hou WX and Yang ST acquired and analyzed the data; Shao YP and Wang J developed methodology; Xu T, Han TT, and Li JN acquired funding; Han TT and Li JN designed the research study, participated in review and editing, and contributed equally to this article as co-corresponding authors; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82405050, No. 82270567, and No. 82100564; and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China, No. 3332024017.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Ethics Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, No. XHDW-2024-37-1.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: All data in the research will be made available on request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jing-Nan Li, Department of Gastroenterology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Hospital, No. 1 Shuaifuyuan, Wangfujing, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100730, China. jnli2020@126.com
Received: August 18, 2025 Revised: October 15, 2025 Accepted: December 8, 2025 Published online: February 7, 2026 Processing time: 164 Days and 20.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The Danggui-Baishao herb pair has shown definite anti-colitis effects in traditional Chinese medicine. By detecting the active ingredients of the herb pair and using transcriptome sequencing for mechanism prediction, our results show that the herb pair protects against colitis by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in vivo, yet this effect is diminished by the β-catenin antagonist ICG-001. Through metabolomics, 16S rRNA, and metagenomic further revealed that the herb pair regulates bile acids metabolism and gut microbiota composition. Finally, molecular docking revealed that benzoylpaeoniflorin has a structural basis for binding to β-catenin. Benzoylpaeoniflorin can activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in vitro and diminished by the ICG-001. This study provides experimental evidence for research on anti-colitis drugs.
