Recent advances of traditional Chinese medicine on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 / 中国天然药物

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a new highly infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus. Recently, the number of new cases infected pneumonia in the world continues to increase, which has aroused great concern from the international community. At present, there are no small-molecule specific anti-viral drugs for the treatment. The high mortality rate seriously threatens human health. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a unique health resource in China. The combination of TCM and Western medicine has played a positive and important role in combating COVID-19 in China. In this review, through literature mining and analysis, it was found that TCM has the potential to prevent and treat the COVID-19. Then, the network pharmacological studies demonstrated that TCM played roles of anti-virus, anti-inflammation and immunoregulation in the management of COVID-19 via multiple components acting on multiple targets and multiple pathways. Finally, clinical researches also confirmed the beneficial effects of TCM on the treatment of patients. This review may provide meaningful and useful information on further drug development of COVID-19 and other viral infectious diseases.

Investigation and analysis on 20 elderly care institutions in urban Shanghai / 中华医院管理杂志

Objective To understand current reality of institutional elderly care services in 11 districts in Shanghai and discuss solutions to the planning and enhancement of such institutions. Methods Surveys were conducted in 20 elderly care institutions in Shanghai from August to October 2017 and questionnaires were distributed to the staff and residents in these facilities. Data were analyzed using Stata 12. 0. Results All the 20 institutions offer medical and nursing care, 19 of which providing insurance settlement and 10 were in deficit. Public facilities boost larger scale than private ones. A survey of 186 staff indicated that only 59. 67% of them felt satisfied with their academic title and professional career promotion opportunities; of 450 of the residents surveyed, 61. 47% of them expressed high acceptance of institutional elderly care, and the coverage of such insurances as critical illness and long-term care insurance was below 7%. Conclusions Half of the sample institutions experienced financial difficulties, roadblocks for staff professional promotion mechanism, unaffordable economic burden for residents, and insufficient supplementary insurance coverage. Policies should be implemented to ensure infrastructure and talent cultivation at elderly care facilities. Combination of elderly care with medical services should be promoted. Supplementary insurance is recommended for citizens to relieve disease and elderly care burden.

Screen astragalosides from Huangqi injections by LC-TOF-MS-based mass defect filtering approach / 中国中药杂志

The samples of Huangqi injection (HI) were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOF-MS), and both positive and negative ion modes were employed to obtain the LC-TOF-MS analysis information of chemical compounds in HI. Then the mass defect filtering (MDF) approach, which was developed based on the previously published articles, was utilized to rapidly screen the astragalosides from the obtained LC-TOF-MS data. Each screened astragaloside was confirmed by the presence of no less than 2 quasi-molecular ions. All the screened astragalosides were then tentatively assigned according to the parent ion and daughter ion information. Finally, a total of 62 astragalosides were screened and characterized from the HI samples, including 15 new detected ones. The identification results indicated that acetylation, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, methoxylation and hydration might be the major conversion reactions involved in the formation of the astragalosides. The LC-TOF-MS-based MDF approach was proved to be a feasible and efficient tool to screen the chemical constituents in complex matrices such as herbal medicines.

Retrospective analysis on effect of reinforcing qi and activating blood for promoting safety in peri-operational stage of hip operation in aged patients / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on the safety in peri-operational stage of hip operation in aged patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Retrospective analysis was performed on the complications and the following therapy in peri-operational stage of hip operation in 1872 aged patients, the incidence and treatment of complication were analyzed and compared between patients who received TCM decoction alone and those received TCM decoction combined with Danshen Injection and Shenmai Injection. The chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All treatments showed good effects in preventing and treating the complications in peri-operational stage of hip operation in aged patients, while the effect of combined therapy was better in improving dyspepsia and preventing deep vein thrombosis than that of TCM decoction alone.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Treatment with TCM of reinforcing qi and activating blood circulation has favorable effects in preventing occurrence of complication in peri-operational stage of hip operation in aged people.</p>