Abstract
BackgroundAlthough integrated traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been indicated to be effective in the treatment of sciatica and is widely used in the management of this condition, the mechanism by which integrated TCM alleviates sciatica has not yet been fully defined, and the effect of integrated TCM on gene expression in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica is still unknown. We performed this study to investigate the effect of integrated TCM on peripheral blood gene expression in patients with sciatica and to explore new clues for studying the mechanism of integrated TCM in alleviating sciatica.MethodsWe used a microarray to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica and healthy controls (DEGs-baseline), bioinformatic analysis to reveal the characteristics of DEGs-baseline, and the key genes that contribute to the gene dysregulation. A microarray was also used to identify DEGs in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica after integrated TCM treatment compared with those at baseline, and the expression levels of DEGs were validated by qRT-PCR.ResultsWe identified 153 DEGs-baseline, which included 131 upregulated genes and 22 downregulated genes. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that most of the DEGs-baseline were related to immunity and the inflammatory response and that TLR4, MMP9, MPO, CAMP, RETN, TLR5, and IL1RN were key genes involved in the dysregulation of genes in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica. The expression levels of TLR5, IL1RN, SLC8A1, RBM20, GPER1, IL27, SOCS1, and GRTP1-AS1 were decreased in the peripheral blood of patients after integrated TCM treatment compared with that at baseline, which was accompanied by relief of pain.ConclusionIntegrated TCM treatment relieved pain while regulating the gene expression of TLR5, IL1RN, SLC8A1, RBM20, GPER1, IL27, SOCS1, and GRTP1-AS1 in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica. Our study provides new clues for studying the mechanism of TCM in treating sciatica.
Highlights
Integrated traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been indicated to be effective in the treatment of sciatica and is widely used in the management of this condition, the mechanism by which integrated TCM alleviates sciatica has not yet been fully defined, and the effect of integrated TCM on gene expression in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica is still unknown
Patients and leg-pain scores We enrolled 25 patients with sciatica aged between 19 and 54 years who were seen in our department for integrated TCM treatment and 25 healthy volunteers aged between 19 and 30 years as healthy controls
When we compared the differentially expressed genes (DEGs)-baseline and DEGs-TCM, we found that toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL1RN), and solute carrier family 8 member A1 (SLC8A1) were present in both groups (Table 1) and that TLR5, IL1RN, and SLC8A1 were upregulated in sciatica patients at baseline compared with healthy controls and were downregulated in sciatica patients after integrated TCM treatment compared with baseline
Summary
Integrated traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been indicated to be effective in the treatment of sciatica and is widely used in the management of this condition, the mechanism by which integrated TCM alleviates sciatica has not yet been fully defined, and the effect of integrated TCM on gene expression in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica is still unknown. Integrated traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been indicated to be effective in the treatment of sciatica and is widely used in the management of this condition [12,13,14]. We performed the present study to investigate the gene expression changes after integrated TCM treatment in the peripheral blood of patients with sciatica, aiming to explore new clues for studying the role of traditional Chinese medicine in alleviating sciatica
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