Efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine for cooling blood and eliminating toxins and strengthening and purifying spleen in the treatment of refractory hepatitis C.

This study was designed to observe the comprehensive efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with interferon in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC), compare this combined therapy with interferon therapy alone and investigate its possible mechanism to provide a basis for the development of an integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine for the treatment of CHC. According to patient contraindications for antiviral treatment, patients who were suitable for interferon therapy and willing to use TCM were enrolled as combined traditional Chinese and Western medicine group, and 21 CHC patients were selected as Western medicine control group; patients who had contraindications for antiviral treatment were included in the TCM group. The three groups of patients were all diagnosed with positive hepatitis C virus - ribose nucleic acid (HCV-RNA). The treatment course lasted for one year and the patients were followed up for 12 months. Patients’ demographic data, course of disease, chronic liver disease questionnaire (CLDQ), genetic typing, biochemical indexes, HCV-RNA and side effects were compared between the groups. The efficacy, incidence of side effects and improvement in quality of life were analyzed in each group. Results showed that the combination of TCM and interferon could protect liver, reduce side effects and also improve quality of life of the patients, while the antiviral activity of TCM alone was not obvious.

Three new C-flavonoids from Corallodiscus flabellata.

Three new C-glycosylflavones, named 5,7,4'-trihydroxy-6-methoxy-8-C-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl- (1 --> 2)]-beta-D-glucopyranosyl flavonoside (1), 5,7,4'-trihydroxy-8-methoxy-6-C-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 --> 2)]-beta-D-glucopyranosyl flavonoside (2), and 5,3',4'-trihydroxy-7,8-dimethoxy-6-C-[beta-D-xylopyranosyl-(1 --> 2)]-beta-D-glucopyranosyl flavonoside (3), along with two known compounds 5,4'-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-6-C-glucopyranosyl-flavonoside (4), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxymethyl benzoate (5) were isolated from 70% acetone extract of Corallodiscus flabellata. Their structures were identified on the basis of spectroscopic techniques and chemical methods.

Database of traditional Chinese medicine and its application to studies of mechanism and to prescription validation.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is widely practised and is viewed as an attractive alternative to conventional medicine. Quantitative information about TCM prescriptions, constituent herbs and herbal ingredients is necessary for studying and exploring TCM. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: We manually collected information on TCM in books and other printed sources in Medline. The Traditional Chinese Medicine Information Database TCM-ID, at http://tcm.cz3.nus.edu.sg/group/tcm-id/tcmid.asp, was introduced for providing comprehensive information about all aspects of TCM including prescriptions, constituent herbs, herbal ingredients, molecular structure and functional properties of active ingredients, therapeutic and side effects, clinical indication and application and related matters. RESULTS: TCM-ID currently contains information for 1,588 prescriptions, 1,313 herbs, 5,669 herbal ingredients, and the 3D structure of 3,725 herbal ingredients. The value of the data in TCM-ID was illustrated by using some of the data for an in-silico study of molecular mechanism of the therapeutic effects of herbal ingredients and for developing a computer program to validate TCM multi-herb preparations. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The development of systems biology has led to a new design principle for therapeutic intervention strategy, the concept of 'magic shrapnel' (rather than the 'magic bullet'), involving many drugs against multiple targets, administered in a single treatment. TCM offers an extensive source of examples of this concept in which several active ingredients in one prescription are aimed at numerous targets and work together to provide therapeutic benefit. The database and its mining applications described here represent early efforts toward exploring TCM for new theories in drug discovery.

Long-term depression at the medial perforant path-granule cell synapse in developing rat dentate gyrus.

Long-term depression (LTD) is a decrease in synaptic efficacy that may model the elimination of inappropriate synapses during brain development. LTD might therefore be expected to be prominent in the juvenile hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG), where the majority of neuronogenesis and excitatory synapse production and pruning occur in the first postnatal month. Thus far, however, LTD in immature DG remains unexplored. Low-frequency stimulus induced homosynaptic LTD was studied at the medial perforant path-granule cell synapse in rats 8-30 days of age. LTD was most consistent and was of greatest magnitude in the youngest animals, and was more robust in response to stimulation at 1 Hz than at 3 or 5 Hz. LTD was saturable by repetitive delivery of low-frequency stimulation, and reversible by tetanic stimulation that induced long-term potentiation (LTP). LTD of the field EPSP was not prevented by bath application of the NMDA receptor antagonist AP5, the mGluR antagonist MCPG, or the L-type voltage sensitive calcium channel antagonist nitrendipine. In whole cell recordings LTD induction was blocked by hyperpolarization of the postsynaptic neuron but not by calcium chelation with BAPTA. Calcium chelation blocked LTP and simultaneously unmasked tetanus induced LTD. These data demonstrate that LTD is prominent in immature DG, that LTP and LTD are complementary processes, and that LTD is likely to be induced postsynaptically because it is voltage dependent, although the mechanism of voltage dependence remains to be elucidated.