The methods and technology of immunopharmacology for Chinese Materia Medica have been progressing rapidly in recent years. The regulation of Chinese Materia Medica on the activity of cytokine and effector cells is reviewed in this article. Many clinical studies indicate that Chinese Materia Medica can regulate the production and activity of IFN, ILs, TNF, etc., and affect the cytotoxieity of NK. LAK, CTL, etc. The immunopharmcological research of Chinese Materia Medica in molecular and cellular levels is useful for explaining the mechanism of whole regulation and two-way regulation depending on the function of the body. In this article, the relations between quantity and effect, the study in vivo and in vitro, and the whole drug and its component are also reviewed.

Computer aid vaccine design (CAVD) is a new area of biomedical engineering. This article reviewed the background of the coming of CAVD and its main research contents, methods and applications. Free tools of the trade in CAVD are listed; the implication and the perspective of CAVD are also suggested.
Animals ; Biomedical Engineering ; instrumentation ; trends ; Computer-Aided Design ; Drug Design ; Epitope Mapping ; Humans ; Software ; Vaccines ; biosynthesis

RNA interference (RNAi) is a post-transcriptional gene silencing process by targeting mRNA for degradation in a sequence-specific manner. This powerful platform has enormous potential in functional genomics and medical research. As a tool to knock out expression of specific genes in a variety of organisms, RNAi was used to investigate gene function in a high throughput fashion. Highly conserved in evolution RNAi appears to have evolved as a cellular defense mechanism in plants and animals to suppress viral infection, transposon jumping and endogenous aberrant genes. Exploiting the natural mechanism, the researchers can shut down disease-causing genes and develop novel therapeutics against infection, tumor and other disease.
Gene Expression Regulation ; Gene Silencing ; Genomics ; RNA Interference ; RNA, Small Interfering ; RNA-Induced Silencing Complex

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common affective disorder.With its unique characteristics and advantages,traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played an important role in the treatment of MDD.Recent researches have revealed that the neuroinflammation-induced neurogenesis reduction were the key pathology of MDD.This analysis indicated that salvia was frequently used for treatment of MDD from the prescriptions reported in literatures.Salvianolic acid (SalB),one of main active compounds of salvia,had showed anti-inflammation and neuroprotection effects in previous studies.In this review,we summarized the antidepressant effects of SalB through regulating microglial activation,inhibiting neuroinflammation and promoting neurogenesis.According to the theory of removing blood stasis for promoting tissue regeneration,it was suggested that the novel antidepressant strategies for antiinflammatory and neuroprotective activities were through microglia-modulating pathway with TCM.