Meta-analysis for clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in treating resistant hypertension / 中国中药杂志

To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine in treating patients with resistant hypertension. CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, EMbase and other databases were retrieved by computers to screen out the randomized controlled trial of traditional Chinese medicine in treating resistant hypertension. Cochrane Handbook was used to evaluate the quality of the included literature, RevMan 5.3 and Stata 12.0 was used for Meta-analysis. Finally, 11 literatures meeting the criteria were included, involving 1 023 patients. The results of Meta-analysis showed that the combined therapy of standard triple antihypertensive regimen with traditional Chinese medicine could further reduce systolic blood pressure of patients with resistant hypertension(MD=-16.69, 95%CI[-22.21,-11.16], P<0.000 01), reduce diastolic blood pressure(MD=-7.51, 95%CI[-8.26,-6.76], P<0.000 01), improve the effective rate of anti-hypertension(OR=5.16, 95%CI[3.01, 8.84], P<0.000 01), improve the up-to-standard rate of blood pressure(OR=3.01, 95%CI[1.49, 6.09], P=0.002), and improve the effectiveness of clinical symptoms(OR=4.48, 95%CI[2.31, 8.68], P<0.000 01), with no significant effect on creatinine level(MD=-2.51, 95%CI[-6.91, 1.89], P=0.26). The results of this study indicated that the combined therapy of standard triple antihypertensive regimen with traditional Chinese medicine could further improve the clinical efficacy in patients with resistant hypertension with a good safety, but more high-quality clinical studies are still needed to verify this conclusion.

Application and modern research on fresh herbs of Chinese materia medica / 中草药

Fresh herbs, whose clinical application has been throughout the entire process of the origin and development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), are with the characteristics of treatment by Chinese materia medica (CMM). Fresh herbs are mainly used during the treatment of febrile disease. Compared with dry herbs, some fresh herbs have better and quicker effect on curing disease, at the same time, it is more meaningful in the treatment of febrile disease. However, the fact that current study on the material basis of fresh herbs is insufficient makes the failure about reasonably designing fresh herbs preparations, so that people can not provide the bases and guidances for the reform of dosage form. Through historical research about the application of fresh herbs, this paper describes the current situation about fresh herbs at home and abroad in recent years, in order to provide a scientific basis for the rational exploitation of fresh herbs resources.

Cloning and bioinformatics analysis of chalcone synthase (AsCHS1) gene in Aquilaria sinensis / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The study aimed to clone the open reading frame of chalcone synthase (CHS) from Aquilaria sinensis and analyze the bioinformatics and expression of the gene.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>One unique sequence containing CHS domain was discovered in our previous reported wound transcriptome dataset of A. sinensis. The open reading frame of CHS was cloned by RT-PCR strategy with the template of mixed RNA extracted from A. sinensis stem which treated by different wound time. The bioinformatic analysis of this gene and its corresponding protein was performed. The AsCHS1 expression in calli was analyzed with histone gene as an internal control gene under wound condition by qRT-PCR technique.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>One unique sequence of CHS, named as AsCHS1, was cloned from A. sinensis. The full length of AsCHS1 cDNA was containing a 1 192 bp ORF that encoded 397 amino acids. The result of qRT-PCR displayed that the highest expression level was at 12 h, which indicated that it was possibly involved in early-stage response to wound.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Cloning and analyzing AsCHS1 gene from A. sinensis provided basic information for study the function and expression regulation of AsCHS1 in the flavonoids biosynthesis.</p>

Identification of pathogen of Aquilaria sinensis dieback disease / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The research focused on identification the pathogen of Aquilaria sinensis dieback disease and confirmation the function of inducing agarwood formation by fungi.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The morphological observation, rDNA ITS sequence analyses, Koch's postulates and pathogenicity test were used to identify the isolates.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The isolates of the causal agent was Lasiodiplodia theobromae, which induced the plant to produce highly valuable agarwood.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The first report of dieback disease of Aquilaria sinensis caused by L. theobromae, and our research results laid a theoretical foundation for agarwood production by using fungus.</p>

The mechanical wound transcriptome of three-year-old Aquilaria sinensis / 药学学报

Chinese agarwood is formed in the aromatic resinous wood formed in Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Gilg (botanical family: Thymelaeaceae). Only when suffering stress of wound, etc, can A. sinensis produce sesquiterpenes etc. compounds of agarwood around wounds. However, little is known about how wound induced the biosynthesis pathway of sesquiterpenes. To reveal the molecular mechanism of wound-induced agarwood formation, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology was used to investigate the profile of gene expression in A. sinensis treated by mechanical wounding and elucidate its functional gene. A total of 40,295 ESTs with an average read length of 305 bp were generated and 22 095 unigenes were formed by initial gene splicing. 61.6% of these unigenes (13 611) were annotated using BLAST searches against the SwissProt, KEGG, Nr and Nt databases. Twenty-six unigenes (encoding 7 enzymes) were found to be involved in sesquiterpene of agarwood biosynthesis by bioinformatic tools of Gene Ontology and KEGG. Novel genes that are potentially involved in sesquiterpenes biosynthesis were identified in A. sinensis, providing data for further sesquiterpenes biosynthesis pathway by molecular methods and the EST data establish a foundation for future studies in the molecular mechanisms of wound-induce agarwood formation in A. sinensis.