Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

In the fight against epidemic infectious diseases in the past 2,000 years, Chinese medicine (CM) has gradually developed a complete response system including diagnosis and treatment. The focal point of CM in the treatment of infectious diseases is the personalized response state to pathogen, which is a treatment method consistent with the personalized concept of precision medicine. Compared with the methods of directly killing or inactivating pathogens, which are used in modern medicine, CM is an effective treatment modality that has a wider range of points of action in the human body. The remarkable effects achieved while treating SARS in 2003 and the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia and the history of the effective responses to epidemics in the past 2,000 years have fully demonstrated the effectiveness of CM in treating infectious diseases. This article discusses the different treatment mechanisms for infectious diseases in CM and modern medicine and the advantages of CM methods, which will reacquaint the world with CM. The improvement of the diagnosis and treatment system of CM based on scientific concepts and methods and the organic combination of both treatment methods of modern medicine and CM will provide the best solution for humans to defeat epidemic infectious diseases.
COVID-19 ; Communicable Diseases/therapy* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Epidemics ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; SARS-CoV-2

In the field of life sciences, although system biology and "precision medicine" introduce some complex scientifific methods and techniques, it is still based on the "analysis-reconstruction" of reductionist theory as a whole. Adaptability of complex system increase system behaviour uncertainty as well as the difficulties of precise identifification and control. It also put systems biology research into trouble. To grasp the behaviour and characteristics of organism fundamentally, systems biology has to abandon the "analysis-reconstruction" concept. In accordance with the guidelines of complexity science, systems biology should build organism model from holistic level, just like the Chinese medicine did in dealing with human body and disease. When we study the living body from the holistic level, we will fifind the adaptability of complex system is not the obstacle that increases the diffificulty of problem solving. It is the "exceptional", "right-hand man" that helping us to deal with the complexity of life more effectively.
Adaptation, Physiological ; Human Body ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Precision Medicine ; Systems Biology

Precision medicine (PM) refers to the tailoring of the prevention and treatment strategies to the individual characteristics of each patient. Following the vigorous advocacy of the U.S. President Obama and China's President Xi, PM has now become a hot topic of common concern worldwide. PM does not merely refer to the skill set level but rather a comprehensive medical methodology. Hence, there is PM that builds on the analytical methodology of Western medical system as well as PM that builds on Chinese medicine (CM). The differences between the two systems, fundamentally speaking, are the differences in methodology to describe the body constitution that based on reductionism and holism. Today, as science advances to complex systems, the mainstream analytical reductionism advances to the holistic synthesis era, it is imperative to introduce CM's holistic body constitution to the modern medical system in order to progress to PM. PM with its foundation on holistic body constitution, is a medical system that integrates Western medicine and CM, is the highest attainment of "PM" in the future.
Humans ; Precision Medicine ; Science

Objective To evaluate the in vitro antifungal activity of Cinnamaldehyde in combination with Voriconazole (VRC) against clinically isolated Aspergillus fumigatus strains. Methods According to the Clinical and Laboratory Stan?dards Institute (CLSI) M38-A2 document,the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of Cinnamaldehyde and VRC alone or in combination against 42 clinical Aspergillus fumigatus isolates were determined by both microdillution method and check?board method respectively. The MIC50, MIC90, MICG and MICs distribution were compared between single drug and both in combination. The concentration-accumulative curve was drawn and fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI) was cal?culated to evaluate the interaction between two test agents. Results The values of MIC50, MIC90 and MICG were significant?ly decreased (P<0.001) when combination of the two drugs than those of their single use, with their MIC distribution concen?tration-accumulative curves shifted to the left. The value of FICI of Cinnamaldehye-VRC combination ranged from 0.187 5 to 1.5. Sixteen strains (38.10%) of them showed the synergistic effect, 19 strains (45.23%) showed additive effect, and 7 strains (16.67%) showed an unrelated effect, and no antagonist effect on tested Aspergillus fumigatus strains in vitro. Conclu?sion Cinnamaldehye in combination with VRC mainly shows a combined synergic and additive inhibitory effect on Asper?gillus fumigatus isolates, and this combination appears to be more active against the test strains, which are less susceptible to voriconazole.

OBJECTIVETo observe the preventive protection of Kangdu Bufei Decoction (KBD) on acute severe respiratory syndrome (SARS) in medical personnel of Hong Kong at the epidemic period.

METHODSAt the epidemic period of SARS in Hong Kong, there were 2,601 medical staffs administered with KBD distributed by the Center. It was confirmed that 1,063 persons had taken it for successive two weeks according to the request and returned the effective questionnaire, they were regarded as the TCM group. The control group was consisted of 15,374 subjects who didn't take Chinese herbal medicine. Contents of the questionnaire including the condition of testee in terms of quality of life (QOL), changes of influenza-like symptoms and Warm disease symptoms. Serum immunological examination had been conducted in 37 of the persons in the TCM group.

RESULTSNo one in the TCM group got SARS infection while in the control group, 64 (0.4%) had got. Self-control before and after treatment examination showed that significant improvement appeared in the TCM in aspects of influenza-like and Warm disease symptoms and QOL. The results of serum immunological examination showed that after administration of KBD, the immunity of organism was improved and elevated.

CONCLUSIONKBD could prevent the occurrence of SARS, it is possibly realized through improving symptoms, elevating QOL and enhancing immunity of organism.

Adjuvants, Immunologic ; therapeutic use ; Adult ; Cross Infection ; prevention & control ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Hong Kong ; Humans ; Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional ; prevention & control ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phytotherapy ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; prevention & control ; transmission ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo compare therapeutic effects of pecking moxibustion therapy and common acupuncture on irritable bowel syndrome (diarrhea type).

METHODSFifty cases of irritable bowel syndrome were randomly divided into a pecking moxibustion group (n=30) and an acupuncture group (n=20). The pecking moxibustion group was treated by pecking moxibustion with a ZHOU's pecking moxibustion pen, and the acupuncture group by common acupuncture. In the two groups, Ganshu (BL 18), Pishu (BL 20), Weishu (BL 21), Shenshu (BL 23), etc. were selected. After treatment of 15 sessions the scores of symptoms and clinical therapeutic effects were compared between the two groups.

RESULTSAfter treatment, the scores of symptoms significantly decreased (both P < 0.01), with a significant difference in the decrease of symptom scores between the two groups (P < 0.05); the total effective rate of 93.3% in the pecking moxibustion group was higher than 75.0% in the acupuncture group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPecking moxibustion therapy can significantly improve the clinical symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (diarrhea type), with a better therapeutic effect than common acupuncture.

Acupuncture Points ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Diarrhea ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Moxibustion ; Young Adult

Objective: The heart contains a pool of c-kit+ progenitor cells which is believed to be able to regenerate. The differentiation of these progenitor cells is reliant on different physiological cues. Unraveling the underlying signals to direct differentiation of progenitor cells will be beneficial in controlling progenitor cell fate. In this regard, the role of the mitochondria in mediating cardiac progenitor cell fate remains unclear. Specifically, the association between changes in mitochondrial morphology with the differentiation status of c-kit+ CPCs remains elusive. In this study, we investigated the relationship between mitochondrial morphology and the differentiation status of c-kit+ progenitor cells. Methods: and Results: c-kit+ CPCs were isolated from 2-month-old male wild-type FVB mice. To activate differentiation, CPCs were incubated in α-minimal essential medium containing 10 nM dexamethasone for up to 7 days. To inhibit Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fragmentation, either 10 μM or 50 μM mdivi-1 was administered once at Day 0 and again at Day 2 of differentiation. To inhibit calcineurin, either 1 μM or 5 μM ciclosporin-A (CsA) was administered once at Day 0 and again at Day 2 of differentiation. Dexamethasone-induced differentiation of c-kit+ progenitor cells is aligned with fragmentation of the mitochondria via a calcineurin-Drp1 pathway. Pharmacologically inhibiting mitochondrial fragmentation retains the undifferentiated state of the c-kit+ progenitor cells. Conclusions The findings from this study provide an alternative view of the role of mitochondrial fusion-fission in the differentiation of cardiac progenitor cells and the potential of pharmacologically manipulating the mitochondria to direct progenitor cell fate.

Animals ; Arsenites ; therapeutic use ; Catheter Ablation ; Liver Neoplasms ; therapy ; Male ; Rabbits

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects of water extract of Zuojin Pill ([characters: see text], ZJP) on inhibiting the growth of human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 and its potential mechanism.

METHODSEffects of ZJP on SGC-7901 cells growth were determined by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, cell apoptosis and cell cycle were determined by flow cytometry, and apoptosis induction was detected by means of DNA gel electrophoresis. The cellular mechanism of drug-induced cell death was unraveled by assaying oxidative injury level of SGC-7901 cell, mitochondrial membrane potentials, expression of apoptosis-related genes, such as B cell lymphoma/lewkmia-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax) and cleaved caspase-3 and caspase-9.

RESULTSZJP exerted evident inhibitory effect on SGC-7901 cells by activating production of reactive oxygen species and elevating Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in SGC-7901 cells, leading to attenuation of mitochondrial membrane potential and DNA fragmentation.

CONCLUSIONSZJP inhibits the cancer cell growth via activating mitochondria-dependent apoptosis pathway. ZJP can potentially serve as an antitumor agent.

Antineoplastic Agents ; pharmacology ; Apoptosis ; drug effects ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Survival ; Colorimetry ; Comet Assay ; DNA Fragmentation ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Mitochondrial Membranes ; drug effects ; Reactive Oxygen Species ; metabolism