The American journal of Chinese medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The prevalence and determinants of Chinese medicine use by Australian women: analysis of a cohort of 10,287 women aged 56-61 years.
This study aimed to examine the factors associated with Chinese medicine use amongst a sample of 10,287 Australian women aged 56-61 years. Data was obtained from a cross-sectional postal questionnaire conducted in 2007, this being the fifth survey of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. This representative sample of 10,287 women was randomly selected from the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare) database. ⋯ Interestingly, severe tiredness was the only symptom or diagnosis that predicted Chinese medicine use. Given the substantial prevalence of Chinese medicine use and the finding that the use of Chinese medicine is heavily integrated alongside the use of many other CAM and conventional treatments, it is imperative for the safety of patients that health professionals (across complementary and conventional healthcare) fully recognise the possible Chinese medicine use amongst their practice populations. In order to help inform relevant practice and policy development it is also important that future research further examining women's decision-making, motivations and evaluations regarding Chinese medicine use considers such issues within the context of broader CAM and conventional health care utilization.
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Celastrol is one of the principal active ingredients of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook.f., a toxic Chinese medical herb traditionally prescribed for controlling pain and inhibiting inflammation in various chronic inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Resistance to apoptosis of fibroblast-like synoviocytes is considered a major characteristic of RA. In this study, we test celastrol's cytotoxic effect and potential mechanisms in human rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts (RA-FLS). ⋯ Furthermore, celastrol dramatically increased expression of Bax/Bcl-2, proteolytic cleavage of Caspase-3, -9, PARP, and decreased expression of FasR. In addition, celastrol treatment resulted in DNA damage. Collectively, we concluded that celastrol inhibits RA-FLS proliferation by inducing DNA damage, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis in vitro, which might provide data for its application in RA treatment.
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PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling promotes cell survival, proliferation and progression in cancer cells. Targeting this pathway may lead to the development of novel therapeutic approaches for human cancers. Here, we examined the effects of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in pancreatic cancer cells, and assessed its therapeutic potential. ⋯ Our results revealed that EGCG dramatically inhibited the proliferation of PANC-1 cells and induced apoptosis simultaneously. Furthermore, it upregulated PTEN mRNA and protein expression levels, as well as downregulating the expression of phospho-AKT and phospho-mTOR. In conclusion, these results suggest that EGCG can suppress proliferation and induce apoptosis of PANC-1 cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner; moreover, EGCG also can upregulate PTEN expression and downregulate the expression of pAKT and p-mTOR to modulate the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.
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Rhubarb, the rhizome of Rheum palmatum L. (RP), is a popular herb used in Chinese medicine prescriptions. RP contains a variety of polyphenolic anthraquinones, such as aloe-emodin, rhein, emodin and chrysophanol. Our previous study found that the anthraquinones in RP existed predominantly as glucuronides/sulfates in the bloodstream, which were putative substrates of MRPs. ⋯ The results showed that coadministration of 0.5 mg/kg of RP significantly increased the AUC 0-t and MRT of MTX by 307% and 364%, and 1.0 g/kg of RP significantly increased the AUC 0-t and MRT of MTX by 602% and 419%, respectively. Cell line studies indicated that the activity of MRP 2 was inhibited by the metabolites of RP and rhein. In conclusion, concomitant administration of RP markedly increased the systemic exposure of MTX via inhibiting MRP 2-mediated excretion.
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To examine the preventive and therapeutic effects of ginsenoside Rb1 for neural injury during cerebral infarction, we used a middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model in rats to investigate the effects of ginsenoside Rb1 with Edaravone as a control. Ginsenoside Rb1 was given to the rats by intragastric administration either before or after the MCAO surgery to study its preventive and therapeutic effects. Ginsenoside Rb1-treated rats had a smaller infarct volume than the positive control. ⋯ These findings suggest that ginsenoside Rb1 has neuroprotective effects in rats, and the protection efficiency is higher than Edaravone. The protective mechanism is different from Edaravone. The preventive ability of ginsenoside Rb1 is higher than its repair ability in neuroprotection in vivo.