Traditional medicine (herb medicine) began to prevail again over last two decades, and it is about 70% of the world population taking herb medicine as supplement or alternative medicine according to a recent survey. The consumption of herb medicine increased exponentially in Canada, Australia and Europe during last 10 years. Since concomitant administration of herbal and western medicine has become a trend, it requires paying close attention to the problem. Herb-drug interactions have been extensively investigated worldwide, and there is an increasing concern about the clinical herb-drug interaction. In this review we introduced the current progress in the herb-drug interactions including evidence-based clinical studies and establishment of levels of evidence for herb-drug interaction; and in the related mechanisms including the induction and inhibition of metabolic enzymes, inhibition and induction of transport and efflux proteins, alteration of gastrointestinal functions, and alteration in renal elimination. We also analyzed both the achievements and the challenges faced in the concomitant administration of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine.

Acoustic Stimulation ; Animals ; Corpus Striatum ; physiology ; Estrogens ; metabolism ; Estrus ; physiology ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory ; physiology ; Female ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Objective To evaluate the effect of prescription review on rational clinical use by means of regional data.Methods Analysis of two prescriptions review data of Beijing municipal hospitals,to compare the rational rate of prescriptions,makeup of irrational prescriptions,and effect variations following feedback.Results Of the 21 hospitals involved,the total rational rate of prescriptions rose from 89.4% to 97.1% following prescription review and feedback of results.In the second review,those found of the highest irrational and the most significant improvements were both irrational indications, with the irrational rate dropping from 90.7% to 44.2%. As reported in feedback for the first prescription review,9 out of 10 druguses found as irrational,have disappeared from the second review. Conclusion The regional administrative prescription reviews can improve the rational clinical drug use, encouraging rational drug use.

Objective To determine the effect of transcription and translation in telomeric related proteins,and synergism of progressive telomere shortening and cell cycle alteration in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cell line,which is induced by antisense tankyrase oligonucleotide(asTANKS) combinated with antisense human telomerase reverse transcriptase(ashTERT) oligonucleotide.Methods A549 cells were randomly assigned as 3 test groups: ashTERT,ashTERT + asTANKS and asTANKS,three control groups(shTERT,sTANKS and blank).With individual intervention for different hours,the effect of transcription in hTERT mRNA was evaluated by RT-PCR,and telomerase activity was tested by ELISA-PCR,tankyrase activity was tested by Western blot as well.Moreover,telomere average length was analyzed by Q-FISH,and duration of proliferation was observed by population double test.Results Transcription in hTERT mRNA and telomerase activity for 48 hrs was inhibited obviously by ashTERT,but not by asTANKS.Progressive telomere shortening in A549 cells for 48 hrs was induced by either asTANKS or ashTERT(vs control,P

Objective: To study the effect of arginine (Arg) on serum NO, NOS activities and thymus T cells in mice under heat stress. Method: NIH-mice were randomly divided into 3 groups and given water L-Arg 1.5 mg/g bw and L-Arg 2.5 mg/g bw for 14 d respectively. There were 42 mice in each group and were under heat stress (41?0.5)℃ for 120 min except 6 mice not stressed as control. Blood was taken at 0, 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 h after heat stress from 6 mice each time. The quantity of NO, activities of NOS and the change of thymus T cells in serum were measured. Results: At normal temperature or under heat stress, the quantity of NO, activities of NOS, the concentration of CD3+, CD4+ cells and CD4+/CD8+ of the groups with L-Arg were higher than those of the groups without L-Arg, but the concentration of CD8+ was contrary. The difference between two groups with L-Arg was not significant . Conclusion: The immunity of mice was destroyed under heat stress for 4-8 h. The quantity of NO, activities of NOS, and the number of T cells and CD4+/CD8+in serum could be improved after given L-Arg.

Child ; Graft Survival ; HLA Antigens ; genetics ; immunology ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Tissue Donors ; Transplantation Chimera ; genetics ; Transplantation Conditioning ; methods ; Transplantation, Homologous ; immunology

Objective To explore and evaluate the clinical value of MRI for status of axillary lymph node after neoadju-vant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with breast cancer. Methods Forty-four patients with 1ocally advanced breast cancer (LABC) were underwent NAC for four cycles. The longest diameter of axillary lymph node (ALN) measured by MRI scan. Val-ue of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and their correlation were compared before NAC and four cycles after NAC. Re-sults of MRI and pathological data for ALN were compared between two groups of patients. Results All patients finished four cycles of NAC. The total response rate (CR+PR) was 72.7% (32/44), and the total non-response rate (SD+PD) was 27.3%(12/44). The longest diameter of ALN was significantly shortened in response group. The longest diameter was (1.37± 1.06) cm before NAC and (0.90±0.76) cm after NAC (P<0.01). The ADC value of the tumor was significantly increased in re-sponse group [(0.91±0.28) ×10-3 mm2/s before NAC and (1.01±0.32)×10-3 mm2/s after NAC, P<0.01)]. There was no signifi-cant correlation between ADC value change (△ADC) and the longest diameter change of ALN (△L, r=0.131, P=0.413). The sensitivity, specificity and Kappa value of ALN evaluation after NAC were 100%, 62.5%and 0.68 measured by MRI. Con-clusion The change of tumor longest diameter reflects the effect of chemotherapy directly. The tumor ADC value of MRI can not be used as an independent indicator of chemotherapy effect of ALN, eventhouth MRI was the sensitive index for eval-uating the status of axillary lymph node after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Hematopoietic System ; drug effects ; Male ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by certain genera of toxigenic fungus and frequently oc-cur in food worldwide. Humans and animals can be simultaneously exposed to different mycotoxins through the diet. As most mycotoxins are highly toxic, carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic, they have posed grave health threats to consumers. Determination of mycotoxins and their main metabolites in blood, urine, bile, milk or faeces can serve as biomarkers and can facilitate effective exposure assessment, crucial to estimate mycotoxin related dis-ease risk. According to reason mentioned above, the study of metabolism and evaluations of mycotoxins in biologi-cal fluids have been paid increasing attention since the results may offer valuable indications on the real risk for consumers. Therefore, it is important to develop proper analytical methods for the rapid quantitative and qualita-tive measurement of mycotoxins and key metabolites in vivo. This paper reviewed some biomarkers and their harm to animals and humans, systematically summarized the research progress of analytical methods and prospected the development trends.

Animals ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Male ; Myocytes, Cardiac ; drug effects ; enzymology ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar