OBJECTIVEMedicinal properties are the basic attribute of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), while the medicinal property theory is the core theoretical foundation of TCM formula combination. In this particle, authors studied the characteristics of pharmacological effects of property combination of traditional Chinese medicines distributing along meridians, with the aim to introduce the medicinal property combination regularity into the design and optimization process of compound TCMs, and bring the medicinal property theory into full play in guiding the formula combination.

METHODIn this paper, TCMs distributing along "the lung meridian" was taken for example. The medicinal property combinations of TCMs distributing along "the lung meridian" recorded in Pharmacopeia (2010) was collected and processed. Besides, Chinese journal full-text database (CNKI) was used to collect all of pharmacological study literatures concerning the above TCMs that have been published since 1980. The pharmacological information was also supplemented by reference to Science of Chinese Materia Medica and Clinical Science of Chinese Materia Medica.

RESULTTCMs distributing along the lung meridian with different properties and tastes showed significant differences in pharmacological effects. For example, mild-sweet-lung medicines could lower blood sugar levels, decrease anoxia and enhance immunity; Mild-bitter-lung medicines showed anti-bacterial, anti-hypertension, anti-oxidation effects; Hot-sweet-lung medicines showed antibechic and anti-bacterial effects. And Hot-bitter-lung medicines showed phlegm eliminating and anti-inflammatory effects. Meanwhile, TCMs distributing along the lung meridian had similar pharmacological characteristics, such as anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, which is consistent with lung's feature in susceptibility to exogenous pathogenic factors.

CONCLUSIONIn this study, authors discovered pharmacological characteristics of different TCMs distributing along the lung meridian, which links TCM theory with modern study achievements and lays a foundation for establishing a TCM property formula combination system.

Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; chemistry ; Humans ; Lung ; drug effects ; Lung Diseases ; drug therapy ; Meridians

Medicinal properties are specific attributes of traditional Chinese medicines(TCM). The medicinal property theory is an important principle for the compatibility of traditional Chinese medicines. In this paper, medicinal properties, flavors and meridian tropism were combined to represent TCM medicinal properties; and multiple medicinal properties were further combined into medicinal property combination modes. TCMs and medicinal property combination modes were divided according to their efficacies, which were regarded as the concept of inductive logic programming and finally got medicinal property combination and compatibility rules with different efficacies. These medicinal property combination and compatibility rules were used to form the theoretical model through the entity grammar system, realize the automatic reasoning process from the medicinal property combination and compatibility to the efficacies, verify the reasoning result and analyze their rationality and limitations, in order to provide new ideas for revealing the relations between the TCM compatibility rules and efficacies.
Drug Interactions ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; methods ; standards ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Meridians ; Models, Theoretical

To study the characteristics of pharmacological effects of property combinations of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) distributing in the stomach meridian based on medicinal property combination, in order to further define the association relationship between properties of TCMs and their pharmacological effects, and build a bridge for the interpenetration and combination between the medicinal property theory of TCMs and their pharmacological effects. On the basis of the studies on the medicinal property theory of TCMs distributing along the kidney meridian and their pharmacological effects, efforts were made to collect relevant data for medicinal properties and pharmacological effects and mine the characteristics of pharmacological effects that were corresponding to relevant medicinal property combination by processing materials related to medicinal properties and pharmacological effects with the association rules method. According to the analysis, TCMs distributing along the kidney meridian with different medicinal property combinations were significantly differentiated in the pharmacological effects, but shared identical pharmacological effects, such as immunological enhancement. In this study, TCMs distributing along the kidney meridian with different medicinal property combinations were taken as the carriers to closely integrate the traditional Chinese medicine theory with the modem study achievements, lay a solid foundation for further developing and enriching the traditional Chinese medical property theory, while providing a new perspective on the development of modem medicine.
Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Kidney ; drug effects ; Kidney Diseases ; drug therapy ; Meridians

OBJECTIVETo establish a characterization system of traditional Chinese medicinal properties in line with modern scientific cognition regularity, in order to reveal properties of traditional Chinese medicines distributed along liver meridian and relations of effects of medicinal properties.

METHODBy collecting data about traditional Chinese medicinal properties recorded in the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (2005 Edition), literature and data about pharmacological effects of traditional Chinese medicines recorded in the Chinese Materia Medica, by using the method of association rules, the authors dug pharmacological effect rules corresponds to relevant medicinal property combinations, with the medicinal property combination of traditional Chinese medicines distributed along liver meridian as the target.

RESULTIt was found that either obvious different pharmacological effects or identical pharmacological characteristics existed in traditional Chinese medicines distributed along liver meridian.

CONCLUSIONWith the aim to explore the correlations between traditional Chinese medicine medicinal properties and pharmacological effects, the authors linked the traditional Chinese medicine theory with modern research achievements, in order to provide the ideas and methods for interpreting mechanisms of medicinal properties.

Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Liver ; drug effects ; Liver Diseases ; drug therapy ; Meridians

OBJECTIVEThe efficiency network is a complicated network for revealing the efficient mechanism of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) and relations among efficiencies. The efficiency-property relations were used to establish a warm-pungent-liver efficiency network to explain the principle of treating hepatoma with medicines invigorating blood circulation and eliminating blood stasis. Safflower, a warm-pungent medicine distributing along the live meridian, was taken for example to discuss the efficiency network' s application in the identification of active ingredients of TCMs and the combination.

METHODIn the early stage of this study, combined warm-pungent-liver medicines distributed along the liver meridian and invigorating blood circulation and eliminating blood stasis were taken as the study objects to collect the pharmacological effect data of warm-pungent-liver medicines and obtain the pharmacological effect combinations with the highest blood circulation-invigorating association by the association rules and the chi-square test. The pharmacological target data recorded in the DrugBank database is used to establish the warm-pungent-liver efficiency network according to the principle line of "efficiency-property-pharmacology-target-protein interaction" under the background of the protein interaction network.

RESULTThe blood circulation-invigorating medicines could directly treat hepatoma by impacting protooncogene, cancer suppressor gene, cell apoptosis and anti-inflammation, and indirectly treat hepatoma by resisting coagulation and adhesion, regulating local blood circulation, preventing cancer cell metastasis and enhancing the tissues' sensitivity to the anticancer drugs. Among the active ingredients of safflower screened based on the blood circulation-invigorating network targets, carthamin yellow, quercetin and luteolin have been proved to have the anti-hepatoma effect in literatures, which indicated the reliability of this study's results and the purpose of the efficiency network.

CONCLUSIONThe efficiency network is an effective method for revealing the TCM's mechanism, and lays a foundation for discovering key active ingredients of TCMs for treating specific diseases.

Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Blood Circulation ; drug effects ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; physiopathology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; drug effects ; Humans ; Liver ; blood supply ; drug effects ; Liver Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; genetics ; metabolism ; physiopathology

OBJECTIVETo study topiramate's new functions according to the medicinal property combinations, in order to apply the traditional Chinese medicinal theory in discovering new purposes of old drugs.

METHODAccording to New Traditional Chinese Medicinal Families--Chemical Traditional Chinese Medicines, the authors found out topiramate's property. Then based on the therapeutic principle of diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy and lung cancer, as well as the relations of efficacies and medicinal property combinations, they summarized the corresponding medicinal property combination modes, compared topiramate's medicinal property combination mode with corresponding medicinal property combination modes of these diseases, and predict topiramate's new functions.

RESULTAccording to the comparison, the corresponding medicinal property combinations were consistent with topiramate's medicinal property combinations as evidenced by corresponding literatures, whereas other medicinal property combinations were not.

CONCLUSIONBased on medicinal property combination modes, the authors screened topiramate's new functions according to e of TCM clinical experience, discovered topiramate's therapeutic effects on diabetes, hypertension and lung cancer in addition to epilepsy, and explore new drug function according to medicinal property combination modes, which could help greatly shorten the new drug R&D period.

Diabetes Mellitus ; drug therapy ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Fructose ; analogs & derivatives ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Hypertension ; drug therapy ; Lung Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; Phytotherapy

Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays an important role in the proliferation, growth, invasion, and metastasis of human cancers. Moreover, β-catenin/T-cell factor 4 (TCF4) interaction regulates the transcription of the key oncogenes in Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Therefore, β-catenin/TCF4 interaction would be a promising therapeutic target for the development of highly selective anticancer agents. At present, most ongoing small-molecule inhibitors targeting β-catenin/TCF4 interaction, including PKF222-815, iCRT3/5/14, LF3, and sanguinarine, have been developed in preclinical studies for human cancer therapeutics. In this review, we summarized the research advances of up-to date inhibitors targeting β-catenin/TCF4 interaction, including the molecular structure and cellular functions of β-catenin in canonical Wnt signaling pathway. This review holds a hopeful avenue for the development of novel and highly selective Wnt inhibitors targeting β-catenin/TCF4 interaction for future anticancer strategy.

At present, studies on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) properties are mostly restricted to a single or two kinds of medicinal properties, but deviated from the holism of the theoretical system of TCMs. In this paper, the characteristics of pharmacological effects of different property combinations of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian were take as the study objective. The data of properties of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian was collected from the Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (2005). The data of pharmacological effects of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian was collected from all of literatures recorded in Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CNKI) since 1980, Science of Chinese Materia Medica (Yan Zhenghua, People's Medical Publishing House, 2006) and Clinical Science of Chinese Materia Medica (Gao Xuemin, Zhong Gansheng, Hebei Science and Technology Publishing House, 2005). The corresponding pharmacological effects of property combinations of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian was mined by the method of association rules. The results of the association rules were consistent with the empirical knowledge, and showed that different medicinal property combinations had respective pharmacological characteristics, including differences and similarities in pharmacological effects of different medicinal property combinations. Medicinal property combinations with identical four properties or five tastes showed similar pharmacological effects; whereas medicinal property combinations with different four properties or five tastes showed differentiated pharmacological effects. However, medicinal property combinations with different four properties or five tastes could also show similar pharmacological effects. In this study, the medicinal property theory and the pharmacological effects of TCMs were combined to reveal the main characteristics and regularity of pharmacological effects of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian and provide a new way of thinking and method for revealing the mechanism action of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian and discovering the pharmacological effects of TCMs distributing in the stomach meridian.
Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Meridians ; Stomach ; drug effects ; Stomach Diseases ; drug therapy

OBJECTIVETo discuss the rationality of the clinical replacement of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) bear bile with bile acid constituents, and analyze the difference between these constituents and bear bile in drug properties.

METHODSummarizing the drug properties of bear bile by reference to medical literatures for drug properties of TCM bear bile and Science of Traditional Chinese Medicine (China Press of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2007). Analyzing and summarizing the pharmacological effects of main bile acid constituents according to relevant literatures for studies on pharmacological effects of main bile acid constituents in CNKI database. Predicating the drug properties of these bile acid constituents by using the drug property predication model established by the study group according the pharmacological effects of main bile acid constituents in the paper, and compare the prediction results with the drug properties of bear bile.

RESULTBile acid constituents in bear bile were mostly cold in property, bitter in taste, and the combination of their drug properties could reflect the combined drug properties of bear bile.

CONCLUSIONAll of these bile acid constituents in bear bile could show part of effects of bear bile. Attention shall be given to regulate the medication scheme in clinical application according to actual conditions.

Animals ; Bile ; chemistry ; Bile Acids and Salts ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Taste ; Ursidae

OBJECTIVETo explore rest, cold compress and elevate (RICE) with rest, compress and elevate (RCE) without cold for the treatment of acute ankle sprain, in order to clear mid-term clinical effects.

METHODSEighty-nine patients with acute ankle sprains were collected from January 2013 to March 2014,including 30 males and 59 females aged from 18 to 60 years old with an average of 36 years old; the time from injury to hospital ranged from 3 to 24 h with an average of 9 h. All patients were divided into two groups according to visiting sequence. There were 45 patients in RICE group, and 45 patients in RCE groups. The main therapeutic effect index was evaluated by Karlsson scoring, and secondary therapeutic effect index was pain and satisfactory VAS scores. Safety index evaluated by adverse event.

RESULTSOn the 2nd weeks after injury, Karlsson score in RICE group was 44.66 ± 11.58, and 46.67 ± 8.52 in RCE group, while there was no statistical significance between two groups in Karlsson scores (P > 0.05). Karlsson score of two groups after treatment were higher than before treatment. There was no significantly meaning in pain and satisfactory VAS scores between two groups (P > 0.05). No adverse reaction were occurred between two groups.

CONCLUSIONCold compress did not receive much more final gains, and no evidence showed cold compress could affect recovery of joint function.

Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Ankle Injuries ; physiopathology ; therapy ; Case-Control Studies ; Cold Temperature ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Sprains and Strains ; physiopathology ; therapy