Field Of Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Articles

Enhancing Clinical Efficacy through the Gut Microbiota: A New Field of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Abstract Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have a long history of playing a vital role in disease prevention, symptom alleviation, and health improvement. However, their complex ingredients and as-yet-unknown mechanisms restrict their application. With increasing evidence indicating that the gut microbiota is important in host health and may be associated with the therapeutic activity of TCM components, it may now be possible to assess the effects of TCMs from the perspective of the gut microbiota. The gut microbiota functions within four major physiological pathways as follows: It participates in host metabolism, forms global immunity, maintains homeostasis of the gastrointestinal tract, and affects brain function and host behavior. This article reviews the reported correlations between TCMs and certain diseases, such as chronic liver disease, ulcerative colitis, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, and elucidates the underlying mechanisms, with a focus on changes in the gut microbiota. In future, further studies are required with more advanced experimental design in order to reveal the interactions between TCMs and the gut microbiota, and provide new insight into and guidance for TCM-based drug discovery.

Discussion on issues related to clinical experts consensus of Chinese patent medicine

The promulgation of standardized documents on traditional Chinese medicine has promoted the formulation of industrial standards of traditional Chinese medicine, including clinical practice guidelines and clinical expert consensus. In order to adapt to the current research situation of "insufficient evidence" or "very low quality" when developing clinical practice guideline in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, the author has made a retrospective study on the development of guidelines and consensus, and found that the consensus is more suitable for the current research status of Chinese patent medicine, as the stage of lack of high-quality clinical evidence will remain for a long time. However, unlike clinical practice guidelines, domestic scholars and consensus makers have insufficient understanding of the clinical experts consensus. This article will introduce the origin and status of the clinical experts consensus, the differences between clinical experts consensus and the clinical practice guidelines, and the basic principles that should be followed in the formulation of the clinical experts consensus of Chinese patent medicine, expecting to provide theory basis and reference for the normative formulation of clinical experts consensus.

The Chinese Medicinal Formulation Guzhi Zengsheng Zhitongwan Modulates Chondrocyte Structure, Dynamics, and Metabolism by Controlling Multiple Functional Proteins.

Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the oldest medical systems in the world and has its unique principles and theories in the prevention and treatment of human diseases, which are achieved through the interactions of different types of materia medica in the form of Chinese medicinal formulations. GZZSZTW, a classical and effective Chinese medicinal formulation, was designed and created by professor Bailing Liu who is the only national medical master professor in the clinical research field of traditional Chinese medicine and skeletal diseases. GZZSZTW has been widely used in clinical settings for several decades for the treatment of joint diseases. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still largely unknown. In the present study, we performed quantitative proteomic analysis to investigate the effects of GZZSZTW on mouse primary chondrocytes using state-of-the-art iTRAQ technology. We demonstrated that the Chinese medicinal formulation GZZSZTW modulates chondrocyte structure, dynamics, and metabolism by controlling multiple functional proteins that are involved in the cellular processes of DNA replication and transcription, protein synthesis and degradation, cytoskeleton dynamics, and signal transduction. Thus, this study has expanded the current knowledge of the molecular mechanism of GZZSZTW treatment on chondrocytes. It has also shed new light on possible strategies to further prevent and treat cartilage-related diseases using traditional Chinese medicinal formulations.

Safety of Qigong: Protocol for an overview of systematic reviews.

Background:Qigong, as one of the essential elements of Traditional Chinese exercises, has been used to improve physical and psychological health and combat diseases in China for thousands of years. In recent years, the beneficial effects of Qigong on different medical conditions are becoming more accepted by both patients and health care providers. Although it is a common impression that Qigong and related therapies are generally safe procedures, but the current understanding of its adverse events is fragmented. Thus, we conducted this overview to synthesize comprehensively existing systematic reviews on adverse events associated with Qigong and related therapies, and our findings can be used to informing clinicians, Qigong practitioner, and patients alike on applying such treatments or interventions in clinical treatment and daily life training mindful manner, and provide a guideline for researchers in future.Methods:A systematic review of reviews will be performed. A literature search strategy designed by a number of specialists in the fields of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), sports medicine, health information, and Qigong training will be carried out in relevant English and Chinese electronic database. The date range of search will start from inception to the search date. Two reviewers will identify relevant studies, extract data information, and then assess the methodical quality by Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) tool. Any types of systematic review that summarized adverse effects related to Qigong and related therapies in human will be included. Any safety-related outcomes will be considered as the primary outcomes of this overview. Where objectives from 2 or more reviews overlap, we will assess the causes of any noted discrepancies between reviews. An overall summary of results will be performed using tabular and graphical approaches and will be supplemented by narrative description.Results:This overview will identify any adverse events associated with nonstandardized Qigong and related therapies procedures based on current relevant literature evidence of safety for Qigong.Conclusion:Our overview will provide evidence to help synthesize the broad degree of information available on furthering the knowledge, safety, and application of Qigong.Ethics and dissemination:Formal ethical approval is not required, as this study is an overview based on the published systematic reviews. The result of this overview of systematic reviews will be published in a peer-reviewed journal or disseminated at national and international conferences.PROSPERO registration number:PROSPERO CRD42018109409

Application of metabolomics and related technologies in research and development field of traditional Chinese medicine

Internal environment of metabolism of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a dynamic process, which is in line with the "holistic-dynamic-comprehensive-analytic" characteristics of metabonomics, therefore metabonomics have a unique advantage to reveal the metabolic pattern of TCM. The application of metabonomics in TCM has great practical significance in understanding the pharmacodynamic/toxic effect material basis, mechanisms and guiding for determination of dosage and treatment course; At the same time, the scientific compatibility of TCM prescription, the germplasm resources of TCM and the preclinical safety/toxicity can be widely researched. At present, metabolomics has become a leading technology in many industries and fields including the research and development of TCM. The core of metabolomics is analytical technology, because comprehensive metabolite profiles or accurate identification of known metabolites can be obtained from complex biological samples only by appropriate analytical techniques. At the same time, a series of bioinformatics/chemical informatics/stoichiometry methods are needed to process the data, so as to obtain the potential law and information in the mass data. In this paper, the concept of metabolomics, relevant analytical techniques, data processing methods and applications were explained and analyzed clearly. In addition, the core problems and countermeasures of metabolomics were summarized, and the future development of metabolomics was prospected as well.

Application Research of Knowledge Mapping in TCM Health

Objective: In the field of Web search and general field, a large number of large-scale knowledge map libraries have been formed, but theconstruction of knowledge maps in the fields of medicine and traditional Chinese medicine is still in its infancy, although there are large-scalemedical ontology libraries. However, there are still few studies on the construction of specialized medicine, especially the TCM knowledgemap library, which greatly hinders the information application and sharing of TCM concept knowledge.Methods: For the map construction of the main conceptual entities such as symptoms, syndromes, diseases and traditional Chinese medicinein the field of traditional Chinese medicine, the corresponding schema pattern (Schema) was designed to determine the basic categories,category attributes and semantic relations of the map. The Protege Ontology Editor adds constraints to the entities in the TCM knowledgemap and their relationships, and uses Protege to graphically display some of the knowledge in the knowledge map. Finally, based on theformed knowledge map, the open-source toolkit Jena and the inference rules based on the logic of TCM diagnosis and treatment are used tocarry out the model analysis and application of knowledge reasoning based on knowledge map.Conclusion: Knowledge graph is carried out in the era of big data. The important data resources of knowledge management and applicationhave become the key technical basis for search engine semantic retrieval and knowledge-based reasoning and decision-making in variousfields. By integrating various data sources, this paper studies the construction of TCM health knowledge maps with symptoms, syndromes,diseases and medicines as the main entities. The analysis results show that it has certain feasibility and application value.

Multiple on-line screening and identification methods for hydroxyl radical scavengers in Yudanshen

Yudanshen, the genuine medicinal materials of Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza), is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) used to treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Although its pharmacological and antioxidative activities have been well-documented, there is little research on the hydroxyl radical (OH) scavenging capacity of Yudanshen. In this study, we established multiple on-line high-performance liquid chromatography- chemiluminescence detector-diode-quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-CL-DAD-Q-TOF/MS) methods to rapidly screen and identify the OH scavengers in Yudanshen simultaneously. The chromatographic and potency fingerprints revealed seventeen peaks that showed the inhibition of OH. Fourteen of them were identified as danshensu, protocatechuic aldehyde, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, salvianolic acid F, salvianolic acid H/L, salvianolic acid G, salvianolic acid D, salvianolic acid E, rosmarinic acid, salvianolic acid B, isosalvianolic acid B, salvianolic acid A, and salvianolic acid C. This study explores the OH scavenging activities of Yudanshen, and provides novel and powerful multiple on-line methods in the field of TCM for rapid screening and identification of OH scavengers.

Therapeutic Angiogenesis of Chinese Herbal Medicines in Ischemic Heart Disease: A Review.

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the primary causes of death around the world. Therapeutic angiogenesis is a promising innovative approach for treating IHD, improving cardiac function by promoting blood perfusion to the ischemic myocardium. This treatment is especially important for targeting patients that are unable to undergo angioplasty or bypass surgery. Chinese herbal medicines have been used for more than 2,500 years and they play an important role alongside contemporary medicines in China. Growing evidence in animal models show Chinese herbal medicines can provide therapeutic effect on IHD by targeting angiogenesis. Identifying the mechanism in which Chinese herbal medicines can promote angiogenesis in IHD is a major topic in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, and has the potential for advancing therapeutic treatment. This review summarizes the progression of research and highlights potential pro-angiogenic mechanisms of Chinese herbal medicines in IHD. In addition, an outline of the limitations of Chinese herbal medicines and challenges they face will be presented.

The potential of three different PCR-related approaches for the authentication of mixtures of herbal substances and finished herbal medicinal products

BackgroundHerbal substances and preparations thereof play an important role in healthcare systems worldwide. Due to the variety of these products regarding origin, composition and processing procedures, appropriate methodologies for quality assessment need to be considered. A majority of herbal substances is administered as multicomponent mixtures, especially in the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine and ayurvedic medicine, but also in finished medicinal products. Quality assessment of complex mixtures of herbal substances with conventional methods is challenging. Thus, emphasis of the present work was directed on the development of complementary methods to elucidate the composition of mixtures of herbal substances and finished herbal medicinal products. Hypothesis/purposeAn indispensable prerequisite for the safe and effective use of herbal medicines is the unequivocal authentication of the medicinal plants used therein. In this context, we investigated the potential of three different PCR-related methods in the characterization and authentication of herbal substances. MethodsA multiplex PCR assay and a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay were established to analyze defined mixtures of the herbal substances Quercus cortex, Juglandis folium, Aristolochiae herba, Matricariae flos and Salviae miltiorrhizae radix et rhizoma and a finished herbal medicinal product. Furthermore, a standard cloning approach using universal primers targeting the ITS region was established in order to allow the investigation of herbal mixtures with unknown content. ResultsThe cloning approach had some limitations regarding the detection/recovery of the components in defined mixtures of herbal substances, but the complementary use of two sets of universal primer pairs increased the detection of components out of the mixture. While the multiplex PCR did not retrace all components in the defined mixtures of herbal substances, the established qPCR resulted in simultaneous and specific detection of the five target sequences in all defined mixtures. ConclusionThese data indicate that for authentication purposes, complementary PCR-related methods are highly recommendable for the analysis of herbal mixtures in parallel.

Various models of atrial fibrillation induced by acetylcholine and its application in the field of traditional Chinese medicine

Various models of atrial fibrillation induced by acetylcholine and its application in the field of traditional Chinese medicine

浅谈真实世界研究及其在中医药领域的应用

浅谈真实世界研究及其在中医药领域的应用

A visual analysis of network pharmacology research trends

Objective: To understand the current situation of network pharmacology, and to analyze external and internal characteristics of literature, is of great significance for the development of network pharmacology in the future and its application in the modernization of Chinese medicine. Methods: Bibliometrics were adapted to perform visual analysis on the research status of network pharmacology with Citespace and SPSS for windows 22.0 version (IBM, Armonk, New York, USA). Knowledge map was used to analyze the knowledge system in the field, to identify the research hotspots and dynamic frontiers, and to elaborate the research status and development trend of domestic network pharmacology. Results: The research on network pharmacology in China is at the stage of the formation and construction of basic theories. At present, we focuses on the solution of actual disease problems and basic theoretical research, while the application in the research field of traditional Chinese medicine is a new hot spot and trend in the future development. Conclusions: It is important to pay attention to the connection and communication among the knowledge groups, so that a systematic knowledge system can be formed in the field of network pharmacology in domestic as soon as possible.

What has traditional Chinese medicine delivered for modern medicine?

The field of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) represents a vast and largely untapped resource for modern medicine. Exemplified by the success of the antimalarial artemisinin, the recent years have seen a rapid increase in the understanding and application of TCM-derived herbs and formulations for evidence-based therapy. In this review, we summarise and discuss the developmental history, clinical background and molecular basis of an action for several representative TCM-derived medicines, including artemisinin, arsenic trioxide, berberine and Salvia miltiorrhiza or Danshen. Through this, we highlight important examples of how TCM-derived medicines have already contributed to modern medicine, and discuss potential avenues for further research.

Determination of zinc oxide content of mineral medicine calamine using near-infrared spectroscopy based on MIV and BP-ANN algorithm

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been widely used in the analysis fields of traditional Chinese medicine. It has the advantages of fast analysis, no damage to samples and no pollution. In this research, a fast quantitative model for zinc oxide (ZnO) content in mineral medicine calamine was explored based on NIR spectroscopy. NIR spectra of 57 batches of calamine samples were collected and the first derivative (FD) method was adopted for conducting spectral pretreatment. The content of ZnO in calamine sample was determined using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) titration and taken as reference value of NIR spectroscopy. 57 batches of calamine samples were categorized into calibration and prediction set using the Kennard-Stone (K-S) algorithm. Firstly, in the calibration set, to calculate the correlation coefficient (r) between the absorbance value and the ZnO content of corresponding samples at each wave number. Next, according to the square correlation coefficient (r2) value to obtain the top 50 wave numbers to compose the characteristic spectral bands (4081.8–4096.3, 4188.9–4274.7, 4335.4, 4763.6,4794.4–4802.1, 4809.9, 4817.6–4875.4cm−1), which were used to establish the quantitative model of ZnO content using back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) algorithm. Then, the 50 wave numbers were operated by the mean impact value (MIV) algorithm to choose wave numbers whose absolute value of MIV greater than or equal to 25, to obtain the optimal characteristic spectral bands (4875.4–4836.9, 4223.6–4080.9cm−1). And then, both internal cross and external validation were used to screen the number of hidden layer nodes of BP-ANN. Finally, the number 4 of hidden layer nodes was chosen as the best. At last, the BP-ANN model was found to enjoy a high accuracy and strong forecasting capacity for analyzing ZnO content in calamine samples ranging within 42.05–69.98%, with relative mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) of 1.66% and coefficient of determination (R2) of 95.75% in internal cross and relative mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.98%, R2 of 97.94% and ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 6.11 in external validation.

Research strategies and application of reference Dao-di herbs

Establishing evaluation system of Dao-di herbs has been a problem to be solved in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and is also a difficult problem in restricting the realization of TCM quality. On the basis of national drug standard substance requirements, this paper puts forward to set up reference Dao-di herbs in the first step of the evaluation system of Dao-di herbs, and discusses the properties, evaluation index system and its development requirements of reference Dao-di herbs, aiming at supporting the modern research and characteristics identification of Dao-di herbs in the future.

Application of plant tissue culture in field of Chinese medicine resources

Plant tissue culture technology has been widely used in the field of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) resources with its unique advantages, playing an important role in the protection of TCM resources. In this review, some applications of plant tissue culture were summarized, including production of active compounds by using plant tissue culture, genetic diversity analysis, Dao-di herbs, elicitor application, biosynthesis and transgenic plants. Through the above researches will promote the further development of plant tissue culture technology, making it play a greater role in the field of TCM resources.

Proteomics analysis of liver proteins from rats with spleen-deficiency syndrome induced by chronic improper diet consumption and fatigue

ObjectiveTo investigate a proteomics analysis of liver proteins from rats with spleen-deficiency syndrome (SDS) induced by chronic improper diet consumption and fatigue. MethodsThis study used a liver proteomic profiling method to identify differentially expressed proteins and altered pathways involved in SDS rats. Specifically, we collected liver samples from a control group and a group with SDS induced by chronic improper diet consumption and fatigue for 4 weeks. The pooled liver proteins in each group were labeled with 8-plex isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation reagents. The labeled control and SDS group samples were pooled together and separated by high-pH reverse-phase liquid chromatography. The differentially expressed proteins from the liver proteomes were analyzed to identify potential biomarkers of SDS. Differentially expressed proteins were selected in conjunction with gene ontology and ingenuity pathway analysis. ResultsWe identified 2176 protein clusters with more than two peptides in the SDS group, with 141 proteins quantified as differentially expressed proteins. Of these, 75 proteins were up-regulated, and 66 were down-regulated. Three activated signaling pathways, the thrombin, CXCR4 and synaptic long term depression signaling pathways, and a large multi-protein complex within the network were revealed in the liver proteomic analysis of SDS rats. ConclusionsThis is the first report of a differential liver proteome under SDS conditions. The results suggest that the liver proteome partially reflects the pathological changes involved in SDS. The findings provide important information for comprehensively understanding the mechanisms of dysfunction or injury in the liver at the molecular level as a result of SDS. Furthermore, they provide a novel understanding of the connotation of SDS in the field of traditional Chinese Medicine.

Knowledge graph for TCM health preservation: Design, construction, and applications.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the important non-material cultural heritages of the Chinese nation. It is an important development strategy of Chinese medicine to collect, analyzes, and manages the knowledge assets of TCM health care. As a novel and massive knowledge management technology, knowledge graph provides an ideal technical means to solve the problem of "Knowledge Island" in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. In this study, we construct a large-scale knowledge graph, which integrates terms, documents, databases and other knowledge resources. This knowledge graph can facilitate various knowledge services such as knowledge visualization, knowledge retrieval, and knowledge recommendation, and helps the sharing, interpretation, and utilization of TCM health care knowledge.

Development, Status and Opportunities of Acupuncture in Qatar

This paper presents an outline of the current status, regulations, and qualifications required for the practice of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and acupuncture in Qatar. The paper also provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities that face practitioners of Acupuncture as a complimentary medicine in Qatar and the recent licensing mechanisms introduced in January 2016. Qatar's 2030 vision and demand for continued development and sustainable growth includes the Chinese initiative ‘One Belt, One Road’ project which offers a golden opportunity for the further development of TCM in Qatar. The findings of this paper suggest that there are now real possibilities China and Qatar to cooperate in the exchange of medical services, training and education in the field of TCM.

Discussion about the application of topic maps technology on knowledge organization of traditional Chinese medicine with the example of Shanghanlun

Literature of TCM contains abundant information of Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine information is characterized by its high degree of knowledge-intensive and complex inter-knowledge, so it is difficult to integrate and share knowledge. The Shanghanlun is one of the Chinese medical classics, and it includes the rules and methods of syndrome differentiation and treatment and it showed good effects in the clinical application. However, it is difficult to master for beginners. As a kind of knowledge organization tool, topic maps can flexibly define the relationship between knowledge, which realizes the visualization of knowledge network, and integrates and shares the distributed knowledge. This paper focused on the current situation of topic maps researches. The topic maps was used to organize the original content of Shanghanlun, construct the concept model of it and explore the specific application of topic maps technology in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Key words: Shang Han Lun; Traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacy; Knowledge organization; Topic maps