Wenyi Gu ¹ Jiajing Zhao ² Yu Xu ^1*

• ¹ Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
• ² Shanghai Putuo Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China

With the change of modern life in all aspects, hyperuricemia(HUA) is becoming a serious universal well-being matter, leading to high-rising morbidity and mortality. HUA which is characterized by an inflated amount of UA has turned out to be the independent inducement for gout, chronic kidney disease, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, etc. As HUA is a metabolic syndrome, the immune response is likely to be actively involved in the whole process. Moreover, macrophages, as one indispensable member of the immunological family, may serve as a promising target against hyperuricemia-induced inflammation. Together with their precursor cell monocytes, they are initiated in its pathogenesis mainly by three particular aspects that all correlate with inflammatory cytokines. The first is the direct action upon the urate transporters such as URAT1, and ABCG2; the second is the modulation of inflammation like targeting toll-like receptors (TLRs) and NOD-, LRR-, and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, and the third is the effects on oxidative stress mediators. Hence, in this review, the underlying mechanisms of hyperuricemia considering the effects of macrophages, therapeutic approaches, and clinical trials of hyperuricemia-caused dysfunction are summarized and the directions of future development are indicated, in the hope of supporting future theoretical studies.