Data mining of the prescription containing Codonopsis and study on the molecular mechanism of prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal disease / 药学学报

The medication rules of high frequency herb-pairs containing Codonopsis pilosula (Dangshen) were analyzed with data mining tools, and the molecular mechanisms of these herb-pairs on the gastrointestinal diseases were predicted with the network pharmacology. The R language association rules were used to mine the high frequency herb-pairs from TCM formulae containing Dangshen, and these herb-pairs would be screened out, which satisfied the following requirements with support ≥ 0.3 and confidence ≥ 0.9 at the same time. Using the Integrated Pharmacology Platform of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCMIP) to predict the key core targets of the high frequency herb-pairs, the network of Chinese medicine-compound-target-pathway related to Dangshen were built to explore the preventing and treating molecular mechanism on gastrointestinal diseases. At last, the relation of the main active components from Dangshen and its herbal pairs with target proteins were validated by Systems Dock Web Site. The 185 formulae were selected from 543 formulae containing Dangshen, and 6 herbal pairs with Dangshen, which includes Angelica (Danggui), Licorice (Gancao), Atractylodes macrocephala (Baizhu), Poria cocos (Fuling), dried tangerine peel (Chenpi) and Astragalus membranaceus (Huangqi), were discovered with Apriori algorithm. The combination of 6 herbal pairs is similar to Bu Zhong Yi Qi Decoction; 6 herbal pairs with Dangshen were related to the target of POMC, OPRM1, CCR9 and HTR2C in TCMIP. The known targets (HTR2C, POMC, OPRM1, CCR9, OPRD1) and potential drug-targets (GNB1, GCK, SDHD, SLC25A2, DHRS4) for gastrointestinal diseases were predicted about the high frequency pairs with Dangshen. The results of GO enrichment analysis showed that the biological function was mainly located in the mitochondria and myelin sheath, and involved in the biological processes of three carboxylic acid cycle, platelet activation, and aspartic acid metabolism. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the main metabolic pathways related with Dangshen pairs involved amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism and endocrine metabolism. The prediction results showed many targets of the frequency herbal pairs with Dangshen preventing and treating gastrointestinal diseases were related with nerve cells. These herbal pairs could prevent and treat the gastrointestinal diseases through the neuroendocrine system and the brain gut axis.

Advances in the biological restoration of the hearing / 复旦学报（医学版）

Sensorineural deafness is the most common disorders of senses,which severely impact the life quality and bring heavy burden to the family as well as the society.Current state-of-art treatments focus on sound amplification and implanted electrodes that stimulate the auditory nerve.These strategies offer partial recovery of function for a limited patient population but do not come close to restoring natural hearing.Clearly,there is strong need for development of biological treatments for the hearing restoration through correcting the genetic defects or regenerating the new hair cells on the damaged cochlear sensory epithelium.We reviewed the advances in the biological restoration of the hearing,including the gene therapy and the hair cell regeneration aspects.

Standardized investigation on medicinal nature of ethnomedicine / 中国中药杂志

This article recorded the analysis and comparison between the medicinal nature theory of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and ethnomedicine(EM). The vocabulary of "medicinal nature" was suggested to indicate the properties of ethnomedicine. Based on the influence of TCM medicinal nature theory on EM in China, the application of medicinal nature theory in EM was divided into 3 classes, and the standardizing principles for EM medicinal nature were proposed. It was suggested that medicinal quality, flavor, tendency, tropism, degree and efficiency can be used for the classification standard for EM medicinal nature.

Study on intersection and regulation mechanism of "efficacy-toxicity network" of aconite in combination environment of Sini decoction / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the intersection and regulation mechanism of "efficacy-toxicity network" of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Zingiberis Rhizoma and Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata's action gene in the combination environment of Sini decoction with the network pharmacological method.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The gene interaction network of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Zingiberis Rhizoma were mined and established with Cytoscape software and Agilent literature search plug-in. The "efficiency-toxicity network" intersection of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata was formed according to its effects in anti-heart failure, neurotoxicity and cardiotoxicity. The target genes were clustered with Clusterviz plug-in. And the possible pathways of the "efficacy-tox- icity network" intersection of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Zingiberis Rhizoma and Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata were forecasted in DAVID database.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>There were five genes related to neurotoxicity, cardiotoxicity and anti-heart failure function of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, namely AKT1, BAX, HCC, IL6 and IL8, which formed 47 nodes genes in the "efficiency-toxicity network" intersection of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata. There were 29 and 27 coincident genes in the "efficiency-toxicity network" of Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Zingiberis Rhizoma and Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata. There were 23 and 17 possible regulatory pathways.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>In the combination environment of Sini decoction, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma and Zingiberis Rhizoma may regulate the efficiency-toxicity network of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata by influencing immune-inflammatory signaling pathway, apoptosis-autophagy signaling pathway, nerve cell and myocardial ischemia and hypoxia protection signaling pathways.</p>

Study on active ingredient and mechanism in preventing vascular dementia of Tianzhusan coming from Tujia medicine / 中国中药杂志

To make clear of the absorbed components of Tianzhusan (TZS) and its possible mechanism in preventing vascular dementia (VD), the rats' models of VD were prepared by a permanent ligation of the bilateral common carotid arteries. After 60 days, rats were administrated with TZS for 0.1 g x kg(-1), and the volume is 0.02 mL x g(-1). After 3 days, the medicated serum was prepared and detected by UPLC, and then we predicted the possible chemical structure of the absorbed components of TZS. According to the absorbed components, the potential targets of TZS were found by ligand profiling of Discovery Studio 3.5. All of these target genes were submitted to DAVID onine for gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). The 5 absorbed components of TZS have been predicted, and four of them have been identified as parishin B, parishin C, parishin, pennogenin-3-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosy-(1-->2)-beta-D-glucoside. Through reverse finding targets, we got 861 pharmacophore models and 9 pathways from KEGG, BIOCARTA after document verification. These results showed that the efficacy mechanism of TZS on VD perhaps were be related with these absorbed components and pathways. If the traditional herbs could be proved effective by efficacy tests, the serum pharmacochemistry, computer-aided drug design, system biology and other technologies can be used in the next experiments, which will be beneficial to fast discovery of material basis and mechanisms of traditional medicine coming form ethnic minorities.

Detection of herpes simplex virus type 1 in rheumatic valvular tissue / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is the most important sequela of rheumatic fever (RF): evidence that streptococcal infection is aetiological is prominent, but sometimes contradictory. Acute HSV-1 infection in mouse leads to carditis and valvulitis whereas recurrent infection results in inflammatory granulomatous lesions that resemble Aschoff bodies. Cells containing HSV-1 inclusions or virus infected giant cells appear similar to Anitschkow cells or Aschoff cells respectively. We hypothesized that HSV-1 infection also may be involved in RHD.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded valvular tissue samples from 32 patients with RHD were investigated for evidence of HSV-1 infection. HSV-1 antigen was detected by immunohistochemistry, using HSV-1-specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. HSV-1 glycoprotein D gene sequences were amplified by nPCR, using beta-globin gene amplification in the same samples as internal control. Valvular tissue from 5 cases of sudden death and 3 cases died of neisseria meningitis without a history of valvular disease was used for comparison. HSV-1-infected lung tissue was used as positive control.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>HSV-1 antigens were detected in valvular tissues from 21 of 32 (65.6%) patients. Fifteen of these 21 (46.9% of cases), but no antigen-negative sample, were positive also for HSV DNA. Nucleotide sequence of PCR products was homologous to the targeted region of the HSV-1 glycoprotein D gene. HSV-1 antigen was present also in one case of sudden death but viral DNA was not found in any tissue sample from the comparison group. Results from reagent and positive controls were as anticipated.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>This is the first study to show the presence of HSV-1 antigen and genomic DNA in valvular tissues from patients with RHD and provides evidence for an association of HSV-1 infection with some cases of rheumatic valvular disease.</p>