This paper briefly analyzed and discussed the current status and major scientific challenges of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulaology research. To promote formulaology research, a new strategy and corresponding technology, network formulaology, were proposed to reveal the complex interaction between functional chemome and biological responses network. The research framework and directions of network formulaology were also summarized and prospected.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; methods ; standards ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Internet ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; standards

AIM: To observe the role of confocal microscopy in infectious keratitis management.
METHODS:Totally 466 patients (467 eyes) diagnosed as infectious keratitis from January 2010 to December 2013 were retrospectively studied. the corneas were examined early by in vivo confocal microscopy. The characteristics of their images and clinical features were studied and summarized.
RESULTS:All patients were recorded, the average age was 54. 4±13. 0 years, in which 264 cases (56. 7%) were male, and 202 cases ( 43. 3%) were female. In the 466 patients, 190 (40. 8%) were fungal keratitis, 148 (31. 8%) were viral keratitis, 125 (26. 8%) were bacterial keratitis and 3 ( 0.6%) were acanthamoeba keratitis. There were fungal hyphae in the images of fungal keratitis. Amebic cysts were found in acanthamoeba keratitis.
CONCLUSION:Confocal microscope can help the early diagnose and treatment of infectious keratitis. It is a noninvasive imaging technique that provides high resolution images of ocular structures at a cellular level and infectious keratitis represents one of its most important clinical uses.

Objective A HPLC method was established for determination of the content of ATST in the aqueous humor of rabbits. MethodsThe mobile phase was consisting of methanol-1％ triethylamine(57:43) and omeprazole (OMZ) as internal standard. The detection was carried out with an ultraviolet detector operated at 235nm. ResultsThere was linearity over the range of 2. 056～41.12 ug/ml in the humor aquosus, r=0.9997. The average recovery of ATST was 94.58 ％. Intra-day and in- ter-day RSD were less than 5 ％ and 10 ％ ( n = 5), respectively. Conclusion The method is reliable. It can be used for the study on the pharmacokinetics of ATST.

Objective To study the anatomical location and pathology of membranous obstruction of the inferior vena cava(IVC)in Budd-Chiari syndrome(BCS)with research on the etiologic mechanism and pathology.Methods Analysis of 100 normal adults was performed including the gross anatomy of IVC segment from the level of diaphragm up to right atrium.The conventional,microscopic pathologic examination of the biopsy sampling IVC obstruetice mambrane tissue in 70 cases toghther with the complete resected membrane from the radical therapy for 20 cases of BCS,were collected and under investigation.Results The macroscopic examination revealed the obstructive membrane in one case(1%)localizing at the diaphragmatic level,approximately 28 mm,away from the IVC entrance into the right atrium and a newly found valvula was seen on the left lateral wall of the upper part of the hepatic vein orifice.Simultaneously,47% adults showed Eustachiun valve existing in IVC near the entrance to right atrium.Microscopy confirmed all the forementioned membranes consisting of vascular valvular structures.Among them(21/70),30% showed additional organized thrombus formations,and 9%(6/70)with a few amount of inflammatory cellular infiltrations.The total intact resection membrane was continuous with the vascular wall under microscopic examination.Conclusions The first newly report of the existence of a special valvula at the diaphragmatic level of IVC reveals the possibility of high correlation with the occurance of IVC membranous obstruction type in BCS.

Human erythropoietin receptor (hEPOR) plays an important role in regulating the red blood cell production by promoting the proliferation and differentiation of RBC from erythroid precursors, hEpoR is a transmembrane protein, and its extrocellular domain (sEpoR) is of great importance in Epo signal transduction pathway. We cloned the gene of sEpoR by RT-PCR from the total RNA of human fetal liver and expressed it in E. coli after insertion of the gene in the expression vector pBV220. The cloned gene was confirmed by sequencing analysis and gene product was confirmed by both Western blot and its first 11 amino acid residues sequence of the N-terminal. In vitro bioassay showed that the purified gene product can repress the growth of TF-cells in the presence of Epo.

Animals ; Antibodies, Monoclonal ; pharmacokinetics ; Iodine Radioisotopes ; pharmacokinetics ; Leukocyte Common Antigens ; immunology ; Male ; Mice ; Radiation Monitoring ; methods ; Rats ; Tissue Distribution

It is the objective of this paper to study pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) characteristics of ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 on the effect of inducing nitric oxide (NO) release after intravenous administration of Shengmai injection to rats with myocardial ischemia. The model of myocardial ischemia rats was produced by subcutaneous injection of isoproterenol. The serum samples were collected at different time points after intravenous administration of Shengmai injection to rats with the dose of 10.8 mL x kg(-1). The concentrations of ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 in serum were determined, and then the concentration-time curves were drawn. Pharmacokinetic parameters of ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 were calculated after the construction of pharmacokinetic models. Meanwhile, NO2- and NO3-, the metabolites of NO, in serum were determined, and then the effect-time curve was drawn. The combined PK-PD model was established based on the theory of effect compartment by Sheiner et al. Then pharmacodynamic parameters were calculated. The results indicated that the pharmacokinetics of ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 conformed to a two-compartment model. Ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 exhibited quick and slow elimination in rats respectively. The effect of Shengmai injection on inducing NO release did not relate directly with and lagged behind the concentrations of ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 in serum. The effect exhibited good correlation with ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 levels in effect compartment. The relationship between effect and serum concentration fits Sigmoid-E(max) model. This study successfully established the combined PK-PD model of ginsenoside Rg1 and Rb1 after intravenous administration of Shengmai injection to rats. The model can efficiently predict the concentration and effect of Shengmai injection in vivo.
Administration, Intravenous ; Animals ; Ginsenosides ; administration & dosage ; pharmacokinetics ; Humans ; Male ; Myocardial Ischemia ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; Nitric Oxide ; metabolism ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Analogous formulae (AF) refer to a set of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulae sharing similar herbs and/or indications. Dissecting functional chemome of analogous formulae could enhance the understanding of the intrinsic nature of TCM. In this study, taking 5 Xiaoqinglong decoction analogous formulae (XQL AF) including Xiaoqinglong decoction, Mahuang Xingren Shigao Gancao decoction, Mahuang Fuzi decoction, Houpu Mahuang decoction and Daqinglong decoction as example, we systematically investigated the relationship between compounds and indications using network formulaology approach. The functional chemome of XQL AF were revealed by network analysis and molecular docking. This successful application in XQL AF suggests network formulaology could be a useful tool for AF-related research and therefore provide a new way to discover the scientific foundation of Zhang Zhongjing's herbal formulae.
Chemistry, Pharmaceutical ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; analysis ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Molecular Docking Simulation

Animals ; Male ; Particle Size ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult ; chemically induced ; Silicon Dioxide ; chemistry ; toxicity

L9 (3(4)) orthogonal experiment was used to design the extraction technology of compound Clematidis Radix spray. Weight coefficients of active ingredients and dry extract rate were solved by information entropy. Support vector machine (SVM) was established and the model parameters were optimized through the genetic algorithm. Grid search algorithm was used for optimization of extraction technology of Clematidis Radix spray. The optimal extraction technology was to extract Clematidis Radix spray in water with 6 times the weight of herbal medicine for 3 times, with 2 h once. Bias of value between real and predicted by SVM was 1.23%. SVM was compared with traditional intuitive analysis of orthogonal design. It indicates that the new method used to optimize the extraction parameters of compound Clematidis Radix spray is more accurate and reliable.
Clematis ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; Support Vector Machine ; Technology, Pharmaceutical