Progress in Mechanism of Astragalus membranaceus and Its Chemical Constituents on Multiple Sclerosis / 中国结合医学杂志

The primary chemical components of Astragalus membranaceus include polysaccharides, saponins, flavonoids, and amino acids. Recent studies have shown that Astragalus membranaceus has multiple functions, including improving immune function and exerting antioxidative, anti-radiation, anti-tumor, antibacterial, antiviral, and hormone-like effects. Astragalus membranaceus and its extracts are widely used in clinical practice because they have obvious therapeutic effects against various autoimmune diseases and relatively less adverse reaction. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of central nervous system (CNS), which mainly caused by immune disorder that leads to inflammatory demyelination, inflammatory cell infiltration, and axonal degeneration in the CNS. In this review, the authors analyzed the clinical manifestations of MS and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and focused on the efficacy of Astragalus membranaceus and its chemical components in the treatment of MS/EAE.

Animal Model Analysis of Multiple Sclerosis Based on Clinical Characteristics of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Based on the clinical characteristics of multiple sclerosis （MS） in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） and western medicine and literature analysis， this paper aims to formulate the diagnostic criteria of TCM and western medicine for MS. Moreover， the modeling methods of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis （EAE）， animals for the modeling， and characteristics of the models were analyzed and summarized， and the consistency between the EAE models and the diagnostic criteria of TCM and western medicine was evaluated. The results showed that animal models had low consistency with the clinical characteristics in TCM （highest consistency 68%） and western medicine （highest consistency 60%）. Pathological models account for the majority of animal models for MS research， but there is a lack of intuitive performance indicators. Thus， it is difficult to comprehensively evaluate the models. The mental state， limb numbness， lack of strength， loss of muscle tone， tremor， and balance disorders of the mice are among the diagnostic criteria in western medicine. In TCM diagnostic criteria， the major symptoms which are reflected in animal behavior， such as physical fatigue， lack of strength， mental fatigue， distinclination to talk， and weak heavy numb limbs， are consistent with the western diagnostic criteria. The minor symptoms， including mental decline， bitter taste in mouth， frequent and urgent urination， fecal incontinence， and aggravated fever， are not well reflected in the models. According to TCM， MS is caused by deficiency of kidney essence and external contraction of pathogen， but no index is available for evaluating the external contraction of pathogen in existing animal models. The key to experimental research on MS is to establish an appropriate animal model based on the clinical pathogenesis and characteristics. However， there is a lack of MS animal model with TCM characteristics for syndrome classification. Therefore， renewed efforts should be made to prepare animal models with both TCM and western medicine characteristics that can be used in both basic experiments and clinical research.