ABSTRACT
Since many patients are still dying from asthma and COPD, developing more effective drugs with little side-effect which can be taken for a long time, is very important. Clinical usage of herbal medicines for chronic airway diseases has been increasing. Bakumondo-to is a useful herbal medicine with little side-effect for the treatment of chronic airway diseases. There are some similarities of pharmacological profile of herbal medicines to those of glucocorticoids. Although the regulation of gene expression by glucocorticoids has been clarified, that of Bakumondo-to is not well known. Elucidation of the mechanism of Bakumondo-to will be helpful in establishing a more effective treatment of chronic airway diseases. This article focuses on the regulation of gene expression by Bakumondo-to in airway epithelial cells, and describes the increase in mRNA expression for β-adrenergic receptors by Bakumondo-to and in glucocorticoid-sensitive promoter activity. We also discuss the mechanisms of the regulatory action of Bakumondo-to.