Chinese Herbal Medicines最新文献

Prostate cancer remains the second most common malignancy in men worldwide, is a global health issue, and poses a huge health burden. Precision medicine provides more treatment options for prostate cancer patients, but its popularity, drug resistance, and adverse reactions still need to be focused on. Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) have been widely accepted as an alternative therapy for cancer, with the advantages of multiple targets, multiple pathways, and low toxicity. We searched the experimental research and clinical practice of CHMs for prostate cancer treatment published in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science in the last five years. We found five CHM formulas and six single CHM extracts as well as 12 CHM-derived compounds, which showed induction of apoptosis, autophagy, and cell cycle arrest, suppression of angiogenesis, proliferation, and migration of prostate cancer cells, reversal of drug resistance, and enhancement of anti-tumor immunity. The mechanisms of action include the PI3K/Akt/mTOR, AR, EGFR and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways, which are commonly implicated in the development of prostate cancer. We also summarized the advantages of CHMs in patients with hormone-sensitive and castration-resistant prostate cancer and provided ideas for their further experimental design and application.

Modern medicine has made remarkable achievements in safeguarding people’s life and health, however, it is increasingly found that in the face of complex diseases, selective targeting of single target is often difficult to produce a comprehensive rehabilitation effect, and is prone to induce drug resistance, toxic side effects. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history of clinical application, and its clinical value in the treatment of complex diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, digestive diseases, skin diseases, rheumatism and immunity diseases, and adjuvant treatment of tumors has been proven to have obvious advantages. However, its modern research is relatively lagging behind, and in the face of the aging society and the characteristics of the modern disease spectrum, the traditional knowledge-driven research paradigm seems to be stuck in a bottleneck and difficult to make greater breakthroughs. Focusing on the key issues of TCM development in the new era, the clinical value-oriented strategy becomes to be a new research paradigm of TCM inheritance and innovation development, and dominant diseases would be the focus of the TCM inheritance and innovation development, which has been highly valued in recent years by the TCM academia and the relevant national management departments. Based on the clinical value, a series of policies are formulated for the selection and evaluation of the TCM dominant diseases (TCMDD), and exploratory researches about the clinical efficacy characteristics, the modern scientific connotation interpretation were carried out. The clinical value-oriented research paradigm of TCMDD inheritance and innovation development has been initially formed, which is characterized by strong policy support as the guarantee, systematic and standardized selection and evaluation methods as the driving force, scientific and effective research on internal mechanisms as the expansion, and effective clinical guidelines and principles as the transformation, which is of great value in promoting the high-quality development of the industries and undertaking of TCM. In this paper, the main policy support, selection and evaluation methods, therapeutic effect characterization, and modern scientific connotation research strategies of TCMDD in recent years have been comprehensively sorted out, with a view to providing the healthy and benign development of the research on TCMDD.

Objective

The medicinal mushroom Sanghuangporus vaninii produces pharmaceutically valuable hispidin polyphenols in natural habitats. However, due to the slow growth in nature, S. vaninii grown in the field (sclerotia) is not reliable for pharmaceutical purposes. Although higher biomass of fungal mycelia can be obtained in submerged cultures, the accumulation of hispidin polyphenols is rare.

Methods

In this study, the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), linoleic acid (LA), linolenic acid (ALA), and methyl jasmonate (MeJa) were employed as the stimulant agents to coordinate the accumulation of biomass and hispidin polyphenols in its submerged cultures.

Results

The addition of LA and ALA promoted the mycelial accumulation, while the addition of MeJa inhibited the growth of S. vaninii concomitant with reduced total polyphenols. UPLC-Triple-TOF-MS analysis revealed an increased production of hispidin, phellinstatin, pinnilidine, and its derivatives upon the addition of LA and ALA, and hypholomine B and its isomer, 3,14’-bihispidinyl, and phelligridin E upon the addition of MeJa on day 13. Intriguingly, total polyphenols from the MeJa-supplementing cultures harbored a high capacity in scavenging free radicals. Chemical structural analysis showed that hispidin polyphenols had higher antioxidant activity due to more hispidin moieties induced by MeJa.

Conclusion

The supplement of PUFAs affects the synthesis and composition of hispidin polyphenols in S. vaninii. Our results provide a possibility to coordinate the production of hispidin polyphenols via submerged cultures of S. vaninii.

Objective

The current fertilization methods for Chinese yam are uneconomic and unfriend to environment. A rational one is very important to achieve desired balance of high yield of Chinese yam, economic and friend to environment. Here, we studied the effects of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) fertilizers on the yield of ‘Qinfeng’ Chinese yam in shallow-groove directional cultivation.

Methods

The experiments were conducted in Dehua County, Fujian Province, China using a “3414” optimal design. Overall, three fertilizer factors (N, P, and K) were evaluated at the following four levels: 0, no fertilizer; 1, 0.5-fold the typical rate; 2, typical fertilization rate; and 3, 1.5-fold the typical rate. There were 14 different fertilization treatments.

Results

Treatment 6 (N₂P₂K₂) produced the longest (75.6 cm) and thickest tubers (4.9 cm) with the highest tuber fresh weight (1311.9 g) and yield (41 015.9 kg/hm²), whereas, treatment 1 produced the shortest (65.6 cm) and thinnest tubers (3.9 cm) with the lowest fresh weight (953.4 g) and yield (28 532.8 kg/hm²) among the 14 fertilizer combinations. The experimental data could be fitted to single-variable quadratic and binary quadratic models but not to a ternary quadratic polynomial model. Appropriate N, P, and K fertilizer application rates increased Chinese yam yield. However, excessive fertilization lowered the yield. Chinese yam yield was significantly and strongly correlated with the amounts of N, P, and K fertilizer applied.

Conclusion

Based on the single variable quadratic and binary quadratic models, we propose that the quantities of N, P, and K fertilizer used to grow 1 hm² ‘Qinfeng’ Chinese yam should be 360–388.3, 90–100.95, and 416.3–675 kg, respectively.

Ischemic stroke (IS) is a severe cerebrovascular disease with a high incidence, mortality, and disability rate. The first-line treatment for IS is the use of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (r-tPA). Regrettably, numerous patients encounter delays in treatment due to the narrow therapeutic window and the associated risk of hemorrhage. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has exhibited distinct advantages in preventing and treating IS. TCM enhances cerebral microcirculation, alleviates neurological disorders, regulates energy metabolism, mitigates inflammation, reduces oxidative stress injuries, and inhibits apoptosis, thereby mitigating brain damage and preventing IS recurrence. This article summarizes the etiology, pathogenesis, therapeutic strategies, and relationship with modern biology of IS from the perspective of TCM, describes the advantages of TCM in the treatment of IS, and further reviews the pharmacodynamic characteristics and advantages of TCM in the acute and recovery phases of IS as well as in post-stroke complications. Additionally, it offers valuable insights and references for the clinical application of TCM in IS prevention and treatment, as well as for the development of novel drugs.

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a common and frequently occurring disease in clinic. With the influence of environmental factors, social factors and dietary factors, the incidence rate of FD in the general population is yearly increasing. Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history and far-reaching influence in the treatment of FD. It can prevent and treat FD in the form of multiple-components, targets and channels, with obvious effect and prominent advantages. This article starts with the common syndrome types of FD, and discusses the research progress of single Chinese medicine, effective ingredients and the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicines in treating FD, in order to provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of FD with traditional Chinese medicines.

Objective

Early bolting of Saposhnikovia divaricata has seriously hindered its medicinal value and sustainable development of resources. The molecular mechanism of bolting and flowering of S. divaricata is still unclear and worth of research. In our study, we explored the transcriptome of the genes related to the bolting and flowering of S. divaricata.

Methods

The transcriptome library was constructed, sequenced, assembled and annotated from the bolting and unbolting leaves of S. divaricata by high-throughput sequencing at the bud and flowering stage. Focus on the pathways related to bolting and flowering in plants, and exploring genes. The expression of seven candidate genes was verified by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR).

Results

Transcriptome results showed that 249 889 422 high-quality clean reads were obtained. A total of 67 866 unigenes were assembled with an average length of 948.1 bp. Trinity de Novo assembly produced 67 866 unigenes with an average length of 948.1 bp. Among 993 differentially expressed genes, 484 genes were significantly up-regulated and 509 genes were down-regulated in the SdM group. A total of 79 GO terms were significantly enriched for differentially expressed genes. KEGG results showed that 11 154 unigenes were enriched in 89 pathways. And 21 candidate genes related to bolting and flowering of S. divaricata were excavated. The qRT-PCR results showed that expression trends of HDA9, PHYB, AP2, TIR1, Hsp90, CaM, and IAA7 were consistent with transcriptomic sequencing results. In addition, RNA-seq had identified 10 740 transcription factors and classified them into 58 families by their conserved domains. Further studies showed that the transcription factors regulating the flowering of S. divaricata were mainly distributed in the NAC, MYB_related, HB-other, ARF, and AP2 families.

Conclusion

Based on the results of this study, it was found that the plant hormone signal transduction pathway was one of the decisive factors to control bolting and flowering. Among them, auxin related genes IAA and TIR1 are the key genes in the bolting and flowering process of S. divaricata.

Objective

Gut microbiome is an intricate micro-ecosystem mediating the human health and drug efficacy. Physalis alkekengi (PAL) is an edible and time-honored traditional Chinese medicine. Several pharmacological effects of PAL have been verified and gut bacteria are implied in its therapeutic actions. However, the detailed modulation of PAL on gut bacterial species and on gut fungi remains largely unknown. We, therefore, designed a preliminary experiment in normal mice to reveal the modulation effect of PAL on both gut bacteria and fungi, and explore the interaction between them.

Methods

Herein, the aqueous extract of PAL was orally administrated to normal C57BL/6 mice for four weeks. The full-length 16S rRNA and ITS1/2 gene sequencing were explored to detect the taxa of gut bacteria and gut fungi after PAL treatment, respectively.

Results

Oral administration of PAL notably enriched anti-inflammatory bacterial species such as Duncaniella spp. and Kineothrix alysoides, whereas decreased pro-inflammatory species such as Mucispirillum schaedleri. Simultaneously, PAL increased the abundance of gut fungi Aspergillus ochraceus, Cladosporium sp. and Alternaria sp., and decreased Penicillium janthinellum. Correlation network analysis identified two co-existing microbial groups (groups 1 and 2) that were negatively associated with each other. The group 1 comprised PAL-enriched bacteria and fungi, while group 2 was mainly normal chow-enriched bacteria and fungi. In group 1, Antrodia monomitica, Aspergillus clavatus, Mortierella kuhlmanii and Sarcinomyces sp. MA 4787 were positively correlated with Bifidobacterium globosum, Romboutsia ilealis and so on. In group 2, Chaetomium subspirilliferum, Septoria orchidearum and Cephaliophora tropica were positively related to Lactobacillus spp.

Conclusion

Altogether, this preliminary study first demonstrated the modulation effect of PAL on both gut bacteria and gut fungi, which may shed light on the elucidation of PAL’s pharmacological mechanism.