ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of heat-clearing, dampness-removing, and Qi-blood-tonifying Chinese herbal medicine compound for the treatment of recurrent genital herpes(RGH), and to investigate the expression levels of Th17 cells and Treg cells in peripheral blood of patients with RGH as well as their role in the pathogenesis of RGH. Methods Sixty RGH patients were randomly divided into experimental group and control group, 30 cases in each group. The experimental group was treated with Chinese medicine decoction, and the control group was treated with Aciclovir tablets orally. The treatment course covered 6 months. The percentages of Th17 cells and Treg cells in the peripheral blood of the RGH patients were detected with flow cytometry. Results (1) After treatment for 3, 6 months, the total effective rate of the experimental group was 53.33%, 80.00%, and that of the control group was 23.33%, 46.67% respectively. There were significant difference between the two groups(P 0.05). The inter-group comparison showed the decrease of Th17 cell percentage and Th17/Treg cell ratio as well as the increase of Treg cell percentage in the experimental group was superior to that in the control group, the differences being significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The curative effect of Chinese herbal compound for RGH is better than that of the control group. Chinese herbal medicine compound can decrease the level of Th17 cells, increase the level of Treg cells, thus to decrease the ratio of Th17/Treg cells, indicating that heat-clearing, dampness-removing, and Qi-blood-tonifying Chinese herbal medicine compound can correct the imbalance of Th17/Treg cells, and then plays a role in anti-inflammation and immune regulation.