The American journal of Chinese medicine
-
Migraine is a recurrent disease with complex pathogenesis and is difficult to cure. At present, commercially available western migraine drugs are prone to generate side effects while treating the disease. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) avoids side effects via treatment with the principles of "treating both symptoms and root causes", "overall adjustment", and "treatment based on syndrome differentiation". ⋯ These strategies not only treat the symptoms of diseases but also their root causes, and with the features of multiple targets, in multiple ways. Therefore, TCM prescriptions have obvious advantages in the treatment of chronic diseases such as migraine. In this review, we provided an overview of the pathogenesis of migraine and the function of representative TCM preparations in therapy of migraine as well as the mechanism of action according to effective researches, in order to provide reference and clue for further researches.
-
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a common complication of cisplatin, which is characterized by intolerable paresthesia, burning, and hyperalgesia, and severely impacts the life quality of patients. However, no clearly potent drug has been found for clinical medication due to its undefined mechanism. Corydalis Saxicola Bunting, a traditional Chinese medicine, has been proven to work well in anti-inflammation, blood circulations improvement, hemostasis, and analgesia. ⋯ Moreover, CSBTA could normalize the overexpression levels of p-p38 and Transient receptor potential vanilloid receptor (TRPV1) induced by cisplatin in DRG, trigeminal ganglion (TG), spinal cord, and foot of rats. In summary, we considered that CSBTA exerted its therapeutic effects by ameliorating neuronal damages, improving intraepidermal nerve fiber (IENF) loss, and inhibiting inflammation-induced p38 phosphorylation to block TRPV1 activation. These findings were the first to confirm the analgesic effect of CSBTA on CIPN and suggested a novel strategy for treating CIPN in clinic.
-
Chronic insomnia is a disease which brings intense mental pain and disturbing complications to patients worldwide. The oral microbiome exhibits a mechanistic influence on human health. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the oral microbial diversity in insomnia. ⋯ Oral bacteria with a relative abundance [Formula: see text]1% and [Formula: see text] among different tongue groups were considered remarkable bacteria, which included three phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Gracilibacteria, and four genera, Streptococcus, Prevotella_7, Rothia, and Neisseria. Our findings indicate that changes in oral microbiome correlate with tongue coatings in patients with chronic insomnia. Thus, the remarkable microbiome may provide inspiration for further studies on the correlation between tongue diagnosis and oral microbiome in chronic insomnia patients.
-
Rhodiola crenulata, a popular folk medicine for anti-altitude sickness in Tibet, has been shown to have protective effects against high glucose (HG)-induced endothelial cell dysfunction in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). However, its mechanisms of action are unclear. Here, we aimed to examine the effects and the mechanisms of action of Rhodiola crenulata extract (RCE) on matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and inflammatory responses under HG conditions. ⋯ Consistently, HG-induced activation of the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation primary response protein (MyD88) signaling pathway, intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), and high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) as well as endothelial cell apoptosis was inhibited by RCE treatment. RCE exerts protective effects on endothelial cells against HG insult, partially by suppressing the HMGB1/TLR4 axis. These findings indicate that Rhodiola crenulata may be a potential therapeutic agent for diabetes-associated vascular diseases.
-
Scutellaria baicalensis (SB), a herbal medicine, is commonly used to treat metabolic diseases, while Metformin (MF) is a widely used drug for type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether co-treatment of SB with MF could produce a potential therapeutic effect on high-fat and high-fructose diet (HFFD)-induced metabolic dysregulation. First, we optimized the dose of SB (100, 200, 400, and 800[Formula: see text]mg/kg) with MF (200[Formula: see text]mg/kg) in HFFD-induced C57BL6J mice. ⋯ Importantly, controlled the expression of PPAR[Formula: see text], and IL-6 genes in the liver, and expression of BDNF, Glut1, Glut3, and Glut4 genes in the brain. Treatment-specific gut microbial segregation was observed in the PCA chart. Our findings indicate that SB and MF co-treatment is an effective therapeutic approach for HFFD-induced metabolic dysregulation which is operated through the gut-liver-brain axis.