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.

The study is to establish an HPLC method using fluorescence detector for the determination of doxazosin enantiomers and investigate their chiral inversion in vitro and in vivo. Ultron ES-OVM was taken as the chiral chromatographic column, and the column temperature was 30 degrees C. Isocratic elution using a mobile phase of phosphate buffer-acetonitrile (85 : 15, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL x min(-1) was done. The fluorescence detection was set at lambda(Ex) = 255 nm and lambda(Em) = 385 nm. Prazosin was used as the internal standard. (-) Doxazosin or (+) doxazosin added into rat plasma in vitro was determined after incubating in 37 degrees C water bath for 2, 5 and 10 days. (-) Doxazosin or (+) doxazosin was administered orally to the rats for one months. Plasma samples were taken at 8 h after the last administration. A good linear relationship was achieved when the concentration of doxazosin enantiomers was within the range of 4 - 2 000 ng x mL(-1). The average recovery for (-) doxazosin was 99.5% with RSD 3.6%, and for (+) doxazosin was 99.3% with RSD 4.3%. Chiral inversion was observed neither in vitro nor in vivo studies. The method is selective, accurate and reproducible, which is suitable for the detection of doxazosin enantiomers in rat plasma. The in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that chiral inversion occurs uneasily between (-) doxazosin and (+) doxazosin in the rat.

Objective:To explore correlation between the distribution of TCM syndromes in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and its cardiopulmonary function.Methods:The general data and cardiopulmonary function test results of 220 hospitalized patients with CHF in the Cardiology Department of Shaanxi Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from June 2018 to June 2023 were retrospectively analyzed, and they were divided into 95 cases with deficiency in nature syndrome and 125 cases with excess in superficiality syndrome according to TCM syndrome diagnosis criteria. The difference of cardiopulmonary function indexes among patients with different TCM syndromes was observed, and the correlation between the distribution of TCM syndromes and cardiopulmonary function indexes was analyzed.Results:In 95 patients with deficiency in nature syndrome, qi-deficiency syndrome (21.82%, 48/220) accounted for the highest proportion, and in 125 patients with excess in superficiality, water-drinking syndrome (39.09%, 86/220) accounted for the highest proportion. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) [(48.84±5.14) % vs. (56.55±6.01) %, t=10.02], stroke cardiac output (SV) [(55.99±6.23) ml vs. (62.86±6.47) ml, t=7.93], cardiac output (CO) [(2.60±0.59) L/min vs. (2.99±0.51) L/min, t=5.25], cardiac index (CI) [(1.54±0.39) L/min?m 2vs. (1.82±0.42) L/min?m 2, t=5.05] of patients with deficiency in nature syndrome were lower than patients with excess in superficiality syndrome ( P<0.001). FVC [(2.16±0.37) L vs. (2.51±0.48) L, t=5.90], maximum vital capacity (VC max) [(2.66±0.42) L vs. (3.01±0.49) L, t=5.58], FEV1 [(2.73±0.42) L vs. (3.15±0.53) L, t=6.35] of patients with deficiency in nature syndrome were lower than those in patients with excess in superficiality syndrome ( P<0.001). Point-biserial correlation analysis showed that patients of CHF excess in superficiality syndrome were significantly correlated with LVEF, SV, CO, CI, FVC, VC max, and FEV1 ( r values are 0.698, 0.705, 0.684, 0.675, 0.719, 0.742, and 0.640, respectively, P<0.05). Conclusions:The deficiency in nature syndrome of CHF patients is qi-deficiency syndrome, and the excess in superficiality syndrome is water-drinking syndrome. The cardiopulmonary function of patients with excess in superficiality syndrome is at a lower level, and there is a significant correlation between patients with excess in superficiality syndrome and cardiopulmonary function. It can provide reference for TCM syndrome diagnosis of CHF patients by monitoring cardiopulmonary function.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a disabling and destructive central nervous system injury that has not yet been successfully treated at this stage. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting has become a promising method to produce more biologically complex microstructures, which fabricate living neural constructs with anatomically accurate complex geometries and spatial distributions of neural stem cells, and this is critical in the treatment of SCI. With the development of 3D printing technology and the deepening of research, neural tissue engineering research using different printing methods, bio-inks, and cells to repair SCI has achieved certain results. Although satisfactory results have not yet been achieved, they have provided novel ideas for the clinical treatment of SCI. Considering the potential impact of 3D bioprinting technology on neural studies, this review focuses on 3D bioprinting methods widely used in SCI neural tissue engineering, and the latest technological applications of bioprinting of nerve tissues for the repair of SCI are discussed. In addition to introducing the recent progress, this work also describes the existing limitations and highlights emerging possibilities and future prospects in this field.

OBJECTIVE： To compare the quality of original preparations of Thioctic acid injection and generic preparations from 2 domestic manufacturers， discuss the acute toxicity test of mice and to investigate the project of consistency evaluation methods. METHODS： According to the quality standard that stated in Chinese Pharmacopeia， physicochemical properties （characters， pH， osmotic pressure， etc.， contents and related substances of samples of Thioctic acid injection as well as LD50 in acute toxicity test （n＝10）， and mortality of mice after administration of injection solution （n＝30） were compared among 3 manufacturers. RESULTS： The physicochemical properties as and related substances of the original drug and 2 generic drugs were all in line with the quality standard； the contents of 3 samples ranged 95％-105％. The acute toxicity test results showed that the LD50 values of 2 generic drugs （LD50： 247.911 mg/kg， 95％ confidence interval： 222.209-277.999 mg/kg；LD50： 215.291 mg/kg， 95％ confidence interval： 196.637-235.053 mg/kg） were smaller than that of original drug （LD50： 266.534 mg/kg， 95％ confidence interval： 250.597-283.418 mg/kg）， but there was no statistical difference （P＞0.05）. The results of 3 repeated experiments showed that there was statistical significance in the number of animal death caused by the 2 generic drugs （26， 28） was more than that of the original drug （19） （all P＜0.05）， when injection solution was injected into mice in a single dose. After administration of the original drug， mice showed excitatory reactions such as movement and squeal， while 2 generic drugs showed inhibitory reactions. CONCLUSIONS： 2 generic drugs of Thioctic acid injection and the original drug all conform to the relevant regulations of Chinese Pharmacopoeia in terms of preparation quality standards， but the results of acute toxicity test are quite different， so it is difficult to prove the consistency between the 2 generic drugs and the original drug. Therefore， acute toxicity test is necessary for the consistency evaluation of injections.