Progress in study on synergism and detoxification of Chinese medicine for glucocorticoid.

Glucocorticoid (GC) plays an important role in anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic effects and immunosuppression, and has become a widely used drug in clinical departments. However, GC also produces a number of serious side effects at the same time. After GC acting on human body, the syndrome change has some regular pattern and it can be treated on the basis of syndrome differentiation and stage to aim at further improving therapeutic efficacy. The Chinese medicine can reduce the side effects of GC when treating the primary disease, thus plays a role in Synergism and Detoxification.

Effects of shikonin isolated from zicao on lupus nephritis in NZB/W F1 mice.

The present study was performed to evaluate the potential protective effects of Shikonin extracted from Zicao on lupus nephritis (LN) using NZB/W F1 mice. Oral administration of Shikonin (24, 40 mg/kg body weight/d) or vehicle was applied to sixty female NZB/W F1 mice of 28-week-old with LN. Treatment with Shikonin for 14 weeks suppressed proteinuria dose-dependently with the mean proteinuria of 274.0 mg/dl and 160.3 mg/dl for low-dose and high-dose Shikonin groups, respectively, compared to 499.2 mg/dl for the vehicle. Also, Shikonin was observed to reduce circulating adhesion molecules significantly and down-regulate intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) mRNA expression in kidney. However, anti-double stranded (ds)DNA antibody in mice with low or high Shikonin dose administration both exhibited no significant elevation, differing from vehicle group. Kidney histological examination showed that renal glomerular lesions were alleviated after Shikonin application. These results suggest that Shikonin has therapeutic effects on LN in NZB/W F1 mice, to which inhibition of anti-dsDNA may be potential contribution, and its part mechanism is related to suppression of mRNA expression of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) in the kidney.

[Clinical obervation of Jiedu Tongluo Lishi decoction on treating reactive rheumatoid arthritis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical curative effect and safety of Jiedu Tongluo Lishi decoction on treating active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHOD: 106 cases of RA in active period were randomly divided into the integrated Chinese and western medicine group (n=54) and western medicine contrast group (n=52). The former group were treated by Jiedu Tongluo Lishi decoction combined with SASP, the latter by MTX combined with SASP. The arthritis morning stiffness time, ache indexes, tumidness indexes, function indexes, hands grip, 20-m walking time and experimental indexes including ESR, RF, CRP, C3, immune globin of both groups were observed and compared. RESULT: The obviously clinical effective ratio and the total clinical effective ratio in the former group were 77.78% and 90.74% respectively, which are better than those in the latter group (59.62% and 71.15% respectively) (P < 0.01). The arthritis morning stiffness time, ache indexes, tumidness indexes, function indexes, hands grip and 20-m walking time in both groups were obviously released after treatment (P < 0.01). The clinical release in the former group was better than that in the latter group (P < 0.05). ESR, RF and CRP in both groups were markedly improved (P < 0.05). The improvement of ESR, RF, CRP, C3 and IgA in the former group were better than those in the latter group (P < 0.05). The side effect includes gastroenteric tract reaction, decrease of leucocyte, abnormity of liver function, tetter and catamenia maladjustment. The occurent ratio in the former group was 7.41%, which was obviously lower than that in the latter group (15.38%) (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The compositively clinical curative effect of Jiedu Tongluo Lishi decoction combined with MTX on treating RA is obviously better than that of western medicine only such as MTX and SASP, with less side effect and higher safety, which is worth applying in clinics extensively.