Signaling Pathways Related to Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treated by Traditional Chinese Medicine： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Irritable bowel syndrome （IBS） is a functional gastrointestinal disease， but it often causes extreme gastrointestinal discomfort and prolonged illness， which seriously affects the quality of life of patients. The global incidence rate is increasing year by year. Clinically， western medicine mainly uses oral antispasmodics， secretagogues， and antidepressants， but there are many disadvantages such as adverse reactions and poor long-term efficacy. Therefore， finding an efficient and safe treatment method is an urgent problem to be solved. A large number of studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine has definite curative and long-lasting effects on the treatment of IBS， which has become a hot research direction in recent years. By searching Chinese and foreign literature， it is found that electroacupuncture， moxibustion， Chinese medicine monomers， and compound decoctions are the main methods in the mechanism research of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of IBS-related pathways， and their signaling pathways involve nuclear transcription factor kappa B （NF-κB）， transient receptor potential vanillin subfamily 1 （TRPV1）， 5-hydroxytryptamine （5-HT）， mitogen-activated protein kinase （MAPK）， and so on. Traditional Chinese medicine can repair intestinal inflammation， reduce visceral sensitivity， enhance intestinal mucosal barrier， and regulate intestinal motility by regulating this series of signaling pathways， thereby playing an important role in the treatment of IBS with multi-level， multi-link and multi-target characteristics. Based on the cell signaling pathways， this paper reviewed the research progress on the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of IBS， hoping to provide theoretical support and diagnosis and treatment ideas for the clinical treatment of IBS with traditional Chinese medicine.