Objective To study the feasibility of artificial immune system(AIS)in assistant designing of computer for new Chinese herbal compounds with anti-infectious function.Methods A group of Chinese herbal drug compounds from Treatise on Exogenous Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases were selected as training samples.Serum was obtained from mice which were infected by Staphylococcus aureus and ig administrated with the various Chinese herbal compounds.The inhibition ability against S.aureus of the serum was tested and input into an artificial neural network(ANN)together with the characters of the every Chinese herb included in those compounds.The ANN was optimized using AIS so that it can predict the inhibitory ability against S.aureus of the Chinese herbal compounds according to the characters of Chinese herbs included in those compounds.After that the computer generated a number of Chinese herbal compounds randomly,calculated their inhibitory ability against S.aureus and output those among the top levels,so as to verify whether the predictions were correct or not.Results After verification,the Chinese herbal drug compounds designed by computer could significantly raise the serum's inhibitory ability against S.aureus.Conclusion The computer can be an assistant for designing new Chinese herbal compounds with anti-infectious function

OBJECTIVETo study the anti-tumor and immunity activity of toad coat (Chantui), which is a new officinal part of Bufo bufo gargarizans.

METHODThe tumor weight of S180, H22, Lewis lung cancer cell inoculated in mice were compared between the groups of mice, fed with toad coat, and those which were not (control group). The average longevity of the mice with HCA fed with toad coat was also compared with the control group. The T lymphocyte transformation and NK cell killing activity were tested and compared with the control group. The condition of the mice which were fed with great dosage of Chantui (16 g x kg(-1) x d(-1)) was observed.

RESULTThe tumor weight was remarkably reduced in the groups which were fed with toad coat compared with the control group. Tests show that toad coat can raise the activity of both T lymphocyte and NK cell. There was no obvious side-effect when the mice were fed with great dosage of toad coat.

CONCLUSIONThe results show that toad coat has a strong inhibitory activity against tumors inoculated in mice and a strong enhancement of immune activity, so it could be viewed as a new valuable safe medicinal source.

Animals ; Antineoplastic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Bufo bufo ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Female ; Killer Cells, Natural ; immunology ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred C57BL ; Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; immunology ; pathology ; Random Allocation ; Skin ; chemistry ; T-Lymphocytes ; immunology ; Tumor Burden ; drug effects