ABSTRACT
Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) is the treasure of our culture, and TCM theory is the core of traditional Chinese medicine. Many of its concepts can be unified and balanced with modern functional food ideas. Even in ancient days, people had already found that medicine and food have the same source. Nowadays, homology between drug and food has been accepted widely. Astragali Radix and some other herbs have been used both as food and medicine, with a variety of bio-active substances, so such herbs can be used as characteristics resources to be developed into functional food. It's a combination of traditional medicine and modern ideas. Flavonoids, polysaccharides and saponins, the main compositions of Astragali Radix, can keep intestinal microenvironment homeostasis and human health by influencing the population structure, metabolism and intestinal cell function of intestinal flora. On the other hand, intestinal flora is also involved in the absorption, metabolism, transformation and other steps of these active ingredients in the body, which has an impact on their effectiveness and improves their bioavailability, playing an essential role in the relevant mechanism of their effectiveness. In this paper, we summarize the interaction between the above three functional ingredients in Astragali Radix and intestinal flora, sum up the interaction between these three functional ingredients of other homologous drugs and intestinal flora, provide a theoretical basis for the mechanism and application of functional food materials, and propose some suggestions and prospects for their future development.
Subject(s)
Humans , Astragalus Plant , Drugs, Chinese Herbal , Functional Food , Gastrointestinal Microbiome , Medicine, Chinese TraditionalABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the roles of surviving and caspase-3 in the development of oral cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Archival tissue sections of 17 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), 28 oral leukoplakia with dysplasia, 10 normal oral mucosa were obtained from Capital Medical University School of Stomatology for immunohistochemical staining of markers of survivin and caspase-3. The cell apoptosis was detected with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nucleotide shift enzyme (TdT) mediated d-UTP end labeling (TUNEL). Positively stained cells were counted and analyzed statistically to determine potential relationship between survivin, caspase-3 and cell apoptosis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The expression of survivin was faint or negative in normal epithelial cells. The average positive rate of survivin was (1.05 ± 1.21)% in control group and (21.89 ± 10.45)% in OSCC. Caspase-3 was expressed in all the normal mucosa,but it obviously down-regulated in dysplasia and OSCC. The apoptosis index (AI) decreased from (0.89 ± 0.46)% in normal mucosa to (0.21 ± 0.12)% in OSCC.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Both survivin and caspase-3 are associated with carcinogenesis of the oral mucosa. Survivin may restrain cell apoptosis by inhibiting caspase-3.</p>