Research on Knee Joint Load and Influencing Factors of Typical Tai Chi Movements.

Background: Tai chi is recognized worldwide for its rehabilitation abilities and healthcare benefits. However, in recent years, some movements associated with tai chi have been shown to damage the lower limb joints. The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the effects of different movements, postures, center of mass (COM) movements, and range of knee movement of tai chi exercises on knee joint load. Methods: Fourteen professional tai chi practitioners in two postures (high and low) were enrolled to perform the following four typical tai chi movements: wild horse's mane (WHM), repulse monkey (RM), wave-hand in cloud (WHIC), and grasp the bird's tail (GBT). Kinematic and kinetics data were synchronously collected using the Vicon infrared high-speed motion capture system and a three-dimensional (3D) force measurement platform. Variance analysis and partial correlation analysis were performed to investigate factors influencing peak knee joint moment and vertical ground reaction force (VGRF). Results: The results showed that the peak knee extension and abduction moment were larger in WHM and RM than those in WHIC and GBT (p < 0.05). WHM was associated with greater rotation moment than the other typical movements (p < 0.05). VGRF and joint moment among different poses were significantly different. Low-pose tai chi typical movements were associated with greater VGRF, knee joint extension and abduction, and rotation moments than high-pose movements (p < 0.05). The anteroposterior and mediolateral COM displacements were strongly and positively associated with VGRF (p < 0.001), while the mediolateral COM displacement was negatively associated with knee extension moment (p < 0.001). The knee internal-external rotation ROM and anteroposterior and mediolateral COM displacements were positively associated with knee abduction moment (p < 0.01). Conclusion: For long-term tai chi exercises, choosing a suitable posture based on an individual exercise level and reasonable control of knee ROM and COM displacement can reduce the risk of knee injury during exercise.

Treatment of Liver Cancer: Role of the Traditional Mongolian Medicine.

Liver cancer is an extraordinarily heterogeneous malignancy with relatively high mortality and increasing incidence rate among the so far identified cancers. Improvements in liver cancer therapy have been made in the past decades, but therapeutics against liver cancer are still limited. Traditional Mongolian Medicine, formed and developed by the Mongolian people to maintain health in the medical practice of fighting against diseases, has been recognized as one of the key components of the world healthcare system. Traditional Mongolian Medicine has been used to treat various malignancies, including liver cancer, for a long time in Asia and its advantages have become more and more apparent. Herein, this review made a comprehensive summary of Traditional Mongolian Medicine, including the ideas in the liver cancer treatment, sources of medicines or prescriptions, traditional applications, modern pharmacological research, chemical structure and mechanisms of several monomer compounds isolated from Traditional Mongolian Medicine, with a view to finding promising drugs against liver cancer and expanding the clinical application of Traditional Mongolian Medicine in liver cancer therapy.

Anticancer activities of TCM and their active components against tumor metastasis.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has the characteristics of multiple targets, slight side effects and good therapeutic effects. Good anti-tumor effects are shown by Traditional Chinese Medicine prescription, Chinese patent medicine, single Traditional Chinese Medicine and Traditional Chinese medicine monomer compound. Clinically, TCM prolonged the survival time of patients and improved the life quality of patients, due to less side effects. Cancer metastasis is a complex process involving numerous steps, multiple genes and their products. During the process of tumor metastasis, firstly, cancer cell increases its proliferative capacity by reducing autophagy and apoptosis, and then the cancer cell capacity is stimulated by increasing the ability of tumors to absorb nutrients from the outside through angiogenesis. Both of the two steps can increase tumor migration and invasion. Finally, the purpose of tumor metastasis is achieved. By inhibiting autophagy and apoptosis of tumor cells, angiogenesis and EMT outside the tumor can inhibit the invasion and migration of cancer, and consequently achieve the purpose of inhibiting tumor metastasis. This review explores the research achievements of Traditional Chinese Medicine on breast cancer, lung cancer, hepatic carcinoma, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and other cancer metastasis in the past five years, summarizes the development direction of TCM on cancer metastasis research in the past five years and makes a prospect for the future.

Effect of Massage on the TLR4 Signalling Pathway in Rats with Neuropathic Pain.

This study set out to investigate the effect of massage on the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signalling pathway in the dorsal root ganglia of rats that had undergone spinal nerve ligation (SNL), with the hypothesis that massage could be used as an analgesic. Forty female SD rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: the control group, sham-operated group, model group, sham massage group, and massage group. There were 8 rats in each group. SNL rat models were established in the model group, sham massage group, and massage group. Rats in the sham-operated group underwent surgery to expose the vertebral nerves, but no further procedures were performed. The control group consisted of intact animals. The rats in the massage group underwent massage using a massage simulation machine once a day for 14 d in succession; the hind limbs of the rats in the sham massage group were gently touched with a cloth bag once a day for 14 continuous days. The rats in the control group, the sham-operated group, and the model group did not receive any intervention and were observed for 14 d. Paw withdrawal thermal latency (PWTL) and paw withdrawal mechanical threshold (PWMT) of rats in each group were detected 1 d before modelling and at 1, 3, 7, and 14 d after modelling. Fourteen days after modelling, the expression levels of TLR4, IRAK1, TRAF6, TNF-α, and IL-6 were detected in all rats. The PWTL and PWMT of SNL rats were decreased, while these parameters were elevated after massage. SNL rats showed higher levels of TLR4, IRAK1, TRAF6, IL-6, and TNF-α, and massage effectively lowered the expression levels of these molecules. Inhibiting activation of the TLR4 signalling pathway, which can reduce the release of inflammatory factors, may be one mechanism by which massage treats neuropathic pain.

Cellular senescence and cancer: Focusing on traditional Chinese medicine and natural products.

Cancer is the principal cause of death and a dominant public health problem which seriously threatening human life. Among various ways to treat cancer, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and natural products have outstanding anti-cancer effects with their unique advantages of high efficiency and minimal side effects. Cell senescence is a physiological process of cell growth stagnation triggered by stress, which is an important line of defence against tumour development. In recent years, active ingredients of TCM and natural products, as an interesting research hotspot, can induce cell senescence to suppress the occurrence and development of tumours, by inhibiting telomerase activity, triggering DNA damage, inducing SASP, and activating or inactivating oncogenes. In this paper, the recent research progress on the main compounds derived from TCM and natural products that play anti-cancer roles by inducing cell senescence is systematically reviewed, aiming to provide a reference for the clinical treatment of pro-senescent cancer.

Alkaloids from Traditional Chinese Medicine against hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has become one of the major diseases that are threatening human health in the 21st century. Currently there are many approaches to treat liver cancer, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Among various methods of treating liver cancer, natural medicine treatment has achieved promising results because of their superiorities of high efficiency and availability, as well as low side effects. Alkaloids, as a class of natural ingredients derived from traditional Chinese medicines, have previously been shown to exert prominent anti-hepatocarcinogenic effects, through various mechanisms including inhibition of proliferation, metastasis and angiogenesis, changing cell morphology, promoting apoptosis and autophagy, triggering cell cycle arrest, regulating various cancer-related genes as well as pathways and so on. As a consequence, alkaloids suppress the development and progression of liver cancer. In this study, the mechanisms of representative alkaloids against hepatocarcinoma in each class are described systematically according to the structure classification, which mainly divides alkaloids into piperidine alkaloids, isoquinoline alkaloids, indole alkaloids, terpenoids alkaloids, steroidal alkaloids and other alkaloids. Besides using them alone, synergistic effects created together with other chemotherapy drugs and some special preparation methods also have been demonstrated. In this review, we have summarized the potential roles of several common alkaloids in the prevention and treatment of HCC, by revising the preclinical studies, highlighting the potential applications of alkaloids when they function as a therapeutic choice for HCC treatment, and integrating them into clinical practices.

Sophoridine Inhibits Human Colorectal Cancer Progression via Targeting MAPKAPK2.

Radian Sophorae flavescentis is a traditional Chinese medicine commonly used to treat cancer in China. However, its active components and underlying mechanism remain ambiguous. In this study, we have screened the pharmacokinetic parameters of the main chemical constituents of Radian Sophorae flavescentis by Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) Database and Analysis Platform and have found that Sophoridine is one of the best antitumor active ingredients. We have found that MAPKAPK2 is a potential target for Sophoridine by the PharmMapper and KEGG databXase analysis. Moreover, we have found that Sophoridine selectively inactivates phospho-MAPKAPK2 (Thr222) and directly binds into the ATP site of MAPKAPK2 by molecular docking. Furthermore, we have found out a direct binding between MAPKAPK2 and Sophoridine by cellular thermal shift assay and drug affinity responsive targets stability assay. The inhibition effects are further confirmed by Western blot: Sophoridine significantly decreases phospho-MAPKAPK2 (Thr222) in a time-dependent manner, but there is no obvious change in its total expression in colorectal cancer cells. Clinical studies have shown that a higher level of MAPKAPK2 is associated with a poorer percent survival rate (prognosis). Furthermore, a higher level of MAPKAPK2 is positively associated with the enrichment of downregulation of apoptosis and autophagy by gene set enrichment analysis, as well as upregulation of proliferation and cell-cycle arrest. Taken together, our results suggest that the MAPKAPK2 plays a key role in Sophoridine-inhibited growth and invasion in colorectal cancers. IMPLICATIONS: These studies show that Sophoridine may be a promising therapeutic strategy that blocks tumorigenesis in colorectal cancers.

[The design and application of a moxibustion instrument with less harmful smoke and direction adjustment].

The design of a clip-on moxibustion instrument which could adjust the directions and absorb harmful granules of moxa smoke was introduced in this paper. It was designed to solve the problems in home health care and clinical treatment, such as the inconvenience of adjustment of moxibustion directions and temperature, more dust and granules of moxa smoke and inconvenience of moxibustion placement. The main part of moxibustion instrument was made up of moxibustion box, bracket and base clamp. The moxibustion box could fix moxa stick and absorb smoke granules; the bracket could be twisted to adjust the direction of moxibustion box; the base clamp was aimed to fix moxibustion box on the edge of the object to save space. This moxibustion instrument could be used for various indications of moxibustion, especially in the joints or body parts with less muscles; and it can significantly enhance the pertinence and safety of moxibustion, and reduce the labor intensity. This moxibustion instrument is original and unique, simple and reasonable, easy to operate, with low cost and good effect, which will increase new vitality for the popularization and development of moxibustion.

[Randomized controlled trial on effect of Tuina for treatment of sub-health people of somatic pain].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical effect and safety of Tuina for treatment of somatic pain of sub-health. METHODS: A randomized, double-blind and blank parallel controlled trial was done. The experiment group was treated with Tuina and the control group lied down for rest, 45 minutes each time, twice each week for three weeks. RESULTS: Tuina treatment could improve more on sensory, affective, evaluation, pain rating index and extant pain intensity of the pain index, and score of subjective sensation of life quality and health status together with physiology and psychology field of life quality. CONCLUSION: Massage is an effective therapy for treatment of somatic pain of sub-health without adverse reactions and it should be generalized to application.