ABSTRACT
From Shen Nong's Herbal Classic (Shennong Bencao Jing) to the Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu) and the first scientific Nobel Prize for the mainland of China, each milestone in the historical process of the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) involves screening, testing and integrating. After thousands of years of inheritance and development, herbgenomics (bencaogenomics) has bridged the gap between TCM and international advanced omics studies, promoting the application of frontier technologies in TCM. It is a discipline that uncovers the genetic information and regulatory networks of herbs to clarify their molecular mechanism in the prevention and treatment of human diseases. The main theoretical system includes genomics, functional genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, metagenomics, synthetic biology, pharmacogenomics of TCM, and bioinformatics, among other fields. Herbgenomics is mainly applicable to the study of medicinal model plants, genomic-assisted breeding, herbal synthetic biology, protection and utilization of gene resources, TCM quality evaluation and control, and TCM drug development. Such studies will accelerate the application of cutting-edge technologies, revitalize herbal research, and strongly promote the development and modernization of TCM.
Subject(s)
Genomics/methods , Medicine, Chinese Traditional/methods , Metabolomics/methods , Plants, Medicinal/genetics , Plants, Medicinal/metabolism , Proteomics/methods , China , Drugs, Chinese Herbal/therapeutic use , Humans , Materia Medica/therapeutic use , Medicine, Chinese Traditional/trends , Phytotherapy/methods , Phytotherapy/trends , Plants, Medicinal/classification , Synthetic Biology/methods , Synthetic Biology/trendsABSTRACT
Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the oldest medical systems in the world and has its unique principles and theories in the prevention and treatment of human diseases, which are achieved through the interactions of different types of materia medica in the form of Chinese medicinal formulations. GZZSZTW, a classical and effective Chinese medicinal formulation, was designed and created by professor Bailing Liu who is the only national medical master professor in the clinical research field of traditional Chinese medicine and skeletal diseases. GZZSZTW has been widely used in clinical settings for several decades for the treatment of joint diseases. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are still largely unknown. In the present study, we performed quantitative proteomic analysis to investigate the effects of GZZSZTW on mouse primary chondrocytes using state-of-the-art iTRAQ technology. We demonstrated that the Chinese medicinal formulation GZZSZTW modulates chondrocyte structure, dynamics, and metabolism by controlling multiple functional proteins that are involved in the cellular processes of DNA replication and transcription, protein synthesis and degradation, cytoskeleton dynamics, and signal transduction. Thus, this study has expanded the current knowledge of the molecular mechanism of GZZSZTW treatment on chondrocytes. It has also shed new light on possible strategies to further prevent and treat cartilage-related diseases using traditional Chinese medicinal formulations.
Subject(s)
Biological Products/pharmacology , Chondrocytes/drug effects , Chondrocytes/metabolism , Drugs, Chinese Herbal/pharmacology , Proteins/metabolism , Animals , DNA Replication/drug effects , Materia Medica/pharmacology , Medicine, Chinese Traditional/methods , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Proteomics/methods , Signal Transduction/drug effects , Transcription, Genetic/drug effectsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Fufang Banmao capusle on the proteome of SMMC-7721 cells and discover potential molecular mechanism of anti-cancer at molecular level. METHOD: SMMC-7721 cells were treated by Fufang Banmao capusle serum prepared with serum pharmacological method; proteomic protocol involving 2-DE, image analysis and mass spectrometry were used to detect the proteins in cells influenced by Fufang Banmao capusle. RESULT: Approximately 450 protein spots in SMMC-7721 cells were resolved and detected in 2-D gel maps from pH3-10L IEF. 47 protein plots varied over 2-fold quantitively between treated sample and control sample were uncovered. 13 differentially expressed proteins spots were further identified by MALDI-TOF-MS analysis and four of them were successfully identified. Annexin A5, heatshock 70 x 10(3) protein 8 was significantly up-regulated in treated sample compared with control sample, while Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A and Peroxiredoxin-2 was significantly down-regulated in treated sample. CONCLUSION: 4 differently expressed proteins associated with the proliferation, apoptosis, immunity of tumor were detected and they might provide clues for the coming research. The protocol of proteomics combined with serum pharmacological method is an effective platform to research complicated formulas in that it is capable of laying out many proteins associated with Fufang Banmao capusle.