[Investigation and clarification of traditional measuring units of Tibetan medicine].

Quantity is the key factor to ensure the safety and effectiveness of medicines. It is very important to study and determine the traditional measuring units and their quantity values of Tibetan medicine. Based on the literature records of Tibetan medicine and combined with modern experimental verification and investigation research, this study determined the reference, name, and conversion rate of traditional measuring units of Tibetan medicine. Meanwhile, through large sample sampling and repeated quantification of refe-rence of basic units, its weight and volume were clarified. The modern SI volume and weight unit values corresponding to the traditional volume and weight units of Tibetan medicine were deduced, and the correctness, reliability, and practicability of these determination results were demonstrated. This study also put forward some specific suggestions and reference values for formulating the standards of measuring units of weight and volume of Tibetan medicine. It is of great significance in guiding the processing, production, and clinical treatment of Tibetan medicine, and promoting the standardization and standardized development of Tibetan medicine.

Sichen Formula Ameliorates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury via Blocking the TLR4 Signaling Pathways.

Purpose: Sichen (SC) formula is a classic prescription of Tibetan medicine. Due to its potential anti-inflammatory effect, the SC formula has been clinically used to treat respiratory diseases for many years in the Chinese Tibet region. The present study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of SC and explore the underlying mechanisms. Methods: SC formula was characterized by HPLC analysis. The acute lung injury (ALI) mouse model was induced by direct intratracheal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) instillation, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissues were collected. Meanwhile, RAW264.7 macrophages were stimulated by LPS. The contents of inflammatory mediators in the culture medium were determined by ELISA. Protein levels were determined by immunohistochemical staining or Western blotting. Nuclear localization of NF-κB, AP-1, and IRF3 was performed using immunofluorescence and Western blotting. Results: In the LPS-induced ALI mouse model, SC treatment suppressed the secretion of inflammatory mediators (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1ß, MCP-1, MIP-1α, and RANTES) in BALF. SC treatment hindered the recruitment of macrophages. SC treatment also inhibited the expression of CD68, p-p65, and TLR4 in the lung tissue. In the LPS-exposed RAW264.7 cells, the cell viability was not changed up to 400 µg/mL of SC. SC concentration-dependently suppressed the production of nitric oxide, prostaglandin E2, TNF-α, IL-6, MCP-1, MIP-1α, and RANTES in LPS-challenged RAW264.7 cells. The expression levels of iNOS, COX-2, p-p38, p-JNK, p-ERK, p-TBK1, p-IKKα/ß, p-IκB, p-p65, p-c-Jun, and p-IRF3 were decreased after SC treatment. Moreover, the nuclear translocation of p65, c-Jun, and IRF3 was also blocked by SC treatment. Conclusion: SC treatment inhibited the inflammatory responses in LPS-induced ALI mouse model/RAW264.7 macrophages. The underlying mechanism of this action may be closely associated with the suppression of TLR4 signaling pathways. These research findings provide further pharmacological justifications for the medicinal use of SC in the management of respiratory diseases.

[Analysis of the principles of Tibetan medicine processing].

Tibetan medicine processing ensures the safety of clinical application of Tibetan medicine. It is of great significance to analyze the principles of Tibetan medicine processing in the development, inheritance, and innovation of Tibetan medicine. However, due to the late start of modern Tibetan medicine research and the disciplinary division, the current research on Tibetan medicine processing focuses on the exploration and collation of traditional techniques and the analysis of the processing mechanism of Tibetan medicine through chemical and pharmacological research, but its principles and traditional theories have been rarely reported. In view of this, after analyzing the concept, essence, theories, purposes, and functions of Tibetan medicine processing through the integration of Tibetan medicine, Tibetan pharmacology, and clinical research of Tibetan medicine, this study proposed that the essence of Tibetan medicine processing was to change the "five sources" composition of medicinal materials through physical, chemical, and biological means, or the comprehensive means, and the theoretical principle of Tibetan medicine processing was to change or transform the positive and adverse effects or the obvious and recessive effects by altering the "five sources" composition of the drug to maximize the positive effect and minimize the adverse effect and the damage to the body, thereby achieving the purposes of toxicity reduction, efficacy enhancement, and drug property harmonization represented by sharpening, softening, nourishing, and reasonable compatibility. This study is expected to provide references for the construction of the theoretical system of Tibetan medicine processing, the inheritance of processing techniques, and innovative research.

Characterization of the complete plastid genome of of Veronica eriogyne H. Winkl., a Tibetan medicinal herb.

Veronica eriogyne H. Winkl.(Plantaginaceae) is a perennial herb with high medicinal value. To better understand the molecular genetics and evolutionary of V. eriogyne, its complete plastid genome was sequenced and annotated. The assembled chloroplast genome is a circular 151,083 bp sequence, consisting of a 82,302 bp large single copy region (LSC) and a 17,449 bp small single copy region (SSC), which were flanked by a pair of 25,666 bp inverted repeats (IRs). The GC content of the chloroplast genome is 38.03%. Moreover, a total of 134 functional genes were annotated, including 88 protein-coding, 38 tRNA, and 8 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that V. eriogyne has close relationship with V. persica Poi. The current study provides important information for further genetic studies on Plantaginacea.

Rapid characterization the chemical constituents of Bergenia purpurascens and explore potential mechanism in treating osteoarthritis by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry combined with network pharmacology.

In recent years, direct and indirect evidence has been found of the efficacy of the traditional Chinese medicine Bergenia purpurascens in treating arthritis and osteoarthritis. Several major components, such as bergenin and 11-O-galloylbergenin, have good anti-inflammatory activity. Since research on the chemical components of Bergenia purpurascens and related mechanisms for the treatment of osteoarthritis has never been performed, this study aimed to analyze the chemical components of Bergenia purpurascens through ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry technology and the UNIFI screening platform to predict the underlying mechanisms in treating osteoarthritis by analyzing the network pharmacology. In total, 43 chemical constituents were identified, mainly flavonoids (18), phenolic glycosides (13), and organic acids (7). Among them, 16 components were found in Bergenia purpurascens for the first time. Through the analysis of network pharmacology, several potential candidate targets and pathways were initially predicted, including AKT1, MAPK1, and MAPK3, as well as the apoptosis, estrogen, and MAPK signaling pathways. Bergenin, 11-O-galloylbergenin, arbutin, catechin-3-O-gallate, and other components play a synergistic role in treating osteoarthritis. This study analyzed the chemical components of Bergenia purpurascens and preliminarily revealed potential mechanisms of treating osteoarthritis, providing a basis for further evaluating the drug's efficacy.

Longzhibu disease and its therapeutic effects by traditional Tibetan medicine: Ershi-wei Chenxiang pills.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ershi-wei Chenxiang pills (ECP) or Aga Nixiu wan (ཨ་གར་ཉི་ཤུ།), composed of 20 Tibetan medicines, has the effect of promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis. As a common and frequent prescription used by traditional Tibetan medicine in clinical treatment of Longzhibu disease (cerebral ischemia sequelae), it has a significant effect. However, its anti-cerebral ischemia mechanism is still unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The chemical components of ECP were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. SD rats were randomly divided into Sham, MCAO, Nim (20.00 mg/kg), and ECP (1.33 and 2.00 g/kg) groups, with 13 animals in each group. After 14 days of oral administration, we established a model of cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury by blocking the middle cerebral artery of rats. After 24 h of reperfusion injury, we evaluated the protective effect of ECP on ischemic brain by neural function score, TTC, H&E and Nissl staining. TUNEL fluorescence, western blot and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the phenomenon of apoptosis and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins Bax, Bcl-2, Cyto-c and activated Caspase-3. Furthermore, western blot, qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were employed to detect CaMKⅡ, ATF4 and c-Jun gene and protein expression. RESULTS: ECP contains agarotetrol, eugenol, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, dehydrodiisoeugenol, hydroxysafflor yellow A, kaempferide, gallic acid, alantolactone, isoalantolactone, costunolide, dehydrocostus lactone, brucine, strychnine, echinacoside, bilirubin and cholic acid. Compared with MCAO group, ECP can significantly ameliorate the neurological deficit of cerebral ischemia in rats and reduce the volume of cerebral infarction. Pathological and Nissl staining results showed that ECP sharply inhibited the inflammatory infiltration injury of neurons and increased the activity of neurons in comparation with the MCAO group. TUNEL fluorescence apoptosis results confirmed that ECP obviously inhibited the apoptosis of neurons. Meanwhile, the results of immunohistochemistry and western blot demonstrated that EPC can dramatically inhibit the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins Bax, Cyto-c and activated Caspase-3, while increase the level of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. In addition, compared with MCAO group, CaMK Ⅱ gene and protein expression were improved significantly by ECP administration. while, the expression of ATF4 and c-Jun genes and proteins were decreased. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this study preliminarily demonstrated that the protective effect of ECP on ischemic brain is related to the improvement of neurological deficit, reducing the size of cerebral infarction, improving the activity of neurons, inhibiting the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway by regulating the protein expression of CaMKⅡ, ATF4 and c-Jun. However, further in vivo and in vitro investigations are still needed to clarify the underlying mechanism of ECP in treating cerebral ischemia sequelae.

[Study on regularity of Tibetan medicine in treatment of gZav-Grib disease (apoplexy sequelae) based on HIS clinical medical records].

This research is launched to look for the medication rules and characteristics of Tibetan medicine in the treatment of gZav-Grib( apoplexy sequelae). HIS records of gZav-Grib patients were selected from the Tibetan Hospital of Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan Hospital of the city of Naqu. SPSS Modeler,Gephi and other data mining and visualization software were used to study the actual law of drug use in the treatment of gZav-Grib in Tibetan medicine. Finally,479 cases of gZav-Grib patients in Tibetan medicine were included. Their average age is 63 and average hospital stay was 32 days. In total,82 Tibetan medicine prescriptions were used for treating gZav-Grib. The frequency in the front is Twenty-flavor Chenxiang Pills( 338 times),Ruyi Zhenbao Pills( 322 times),and Seventy-flavor Zhenzhu Pills( 315 times). According to the regularity of Tebitan medicine,they were applied in different time periods including the early morning,morning,noon,and evening,for example,in the early morning: Seventy-flavor Zhenzhu Pills,morning: Ruyi Zhenbao Pills,noon: Eighteen-flavor Dujuan Pills,evening: Twenty-flavor Chenxiang Pills. In the clinical joint,18 groups were found in the 10% support and 70% confidence. There are two prescriptions confidence more than 80% which nature focus on Gan,Ruan,Xi,Liang,Dun,Han,Wen. gZav-Grib of Tibetan medicine can be divided into two types: r Lung-Grib type and k Hrag-Grib type,in which the medicine of r Lung-Grib type takes Seventy-flavor Zhenzhu Pills as the core prescription,while the medicine of k Hrag-Grib type takes Ruyi Zhenbao Pills as the core prescription. It is found that the treatment of gZav-Grib by Tibetan medicine is mainly dominated by the treatment idea about " Therapeutic r Lung and blood,Consideration of venous diseases". Treatment functions is promoting the circulation of Qi,clearing blood heat and getting rid of bad blood,achieving the purpose of treating both principal secondary aspect of gZav-Grib. The research methods based on the HIS can't only optimize the Tibetan treating gZav-Grib sequela treatment plan and rule of medication,but also provide the scientific basis for Tibetan medicine treat gZav-Grib.