Comparison of two Chinese medical herbs, Huangbai and Qianniuzi, on influence of short circuit current across the rat intestinal epithelia

Ethanol extract of Pharbitis nil ameliorates liver fibrosis through regulation of the TGFβ1-SMAD2/3 pathway

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Pharbitis nil (L.) Choisy is a medicinal herb, and herbal remedies based on its seeds have been used to treat of obesity and liver diseases, including fatty liver and liver cirrhosis in East Asia.

AIM OF THE STUDY

Liver fibrosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic liver inflammation such as that caused by non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. However, no effective pharmaceutical treatment for liver fibrosis has been approved. In this study, we aimed to investigate that ethanol extract of pharbitis nil (PNE) alleviates the liver fibrosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We studied the effects of PNE on two preclinical models. Six-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with CCl₄ twice weekly for 6 weeks and then treated with 5 or 10 mg/kg PNE daily from week 3 for weeks. Secondly, mice were fed HFD for 41 weeks and at 35 weeks treated with 5 mg/kg PNE daily for the remaining 6 weeks. In addition, we examined the antifibrotic effects of PNE in primary mouse hepatic stellate cells and LX-2 cells.

RESULTS

PNE treatment ameliorated hepatocyte necrosis, inflammation, and liver fibrosis in CCl₄-treated mice and inhibited the progression of liver fibrosis in mice with HFD-induced fibrosis. PNE reduced the expressions of fibrosis markers and SMAD2/3 activations in mouse livers and in TGFβ1-treated primary mouse hepatic stellate and LX-2 cells CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that PNE attenuates liver fibrosis by downregulating TGFβ1-induced SMAD2/3 activation.

Regulation of Cl- Electrolyte Permeability in Epithelia by Active Traditional Chinese Medicine Monomers for Diarrhea

The epithelial layer, lining the inner surface of the mammalian alveolar, kidney, brain and colon, is a typical electrolyte transporting tissue. Large quantities of salt and fluid are actively moved from the mucosal side toward the blood vessel. Transepithelial salt re-absorption in epithelial tissues plays an important role in maintaining fluid homeostasis. In absorptive epithelium, fluid and salt flux is controlled by the machinery mainly composed of epithelial sodium channel, cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, Na+-K+-2Cl- cotransporter, Na+/H+ exchanger, and Na+/K+-ATPase. Dysregulation of salt permeability across epithelium contributes to the pathogenesis of organ edema. In numerous ion transporters, epithelial Cl- transportation plays an important role in water secretion across epithelial tissues and regulation of body fluid content. Many traditional Chinese medicines treat diarrhea by regulating the Cl- electrolyte transport. We systematically summarized the recent progress regarding the traditional Chinese medicine on Cl- electrolyte transport in the intestinal epithelial tissues. The pharmaceutical relevance of developing advanced strategies to mitigate edematous disorders is also implicated. In conclusion, the crosstalk between Cl- electrolyte transport and active traditional Chinese medicine monomers may lead to the development of new strategies for diarrhea by manipulating the function and expression of ion channels.

Morning glory seed keeps laxative effect while retains less subchronic toxicity after being fried

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Morning glory seed (MGS), has been widely used in treating constipation especially towards children. Clinically, people usually take fried MGS (MGSF) in formulas to reduce its side effect. However, the safety of MGSF other than MGS has yet to be explored.

OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to reveal the potential mechanisms of using MGSF instead of MGS basing on chemistry, pharmacodynamics and toxicology.

METHODS

The chemical compositions of the extracts of MGS and MGSF were compared using UPLC-Q-TOF/MS method. Simultaneously, to prove the availability and safety of MGSF, we investigated the laxative effect and subchronic toxicity of MGS and MGSF and addressed the mechanism of laxative effect of them.

RESULTS

In this study, less phenolic acids and more fatty acids were detected in MGSF compared with the compounds in MGS. Moreover, we found that MGS group had stronger laxative effect than MGSF group via downregulating the expression of AQP3 protein. As for subchronic toxicity test, the body weights of MGS group were lower than MGSF group. In serum biochemistry and histopathological examinations, MGS group could cause more serious toxicity in liver, kidney and colon than MGSF group with higher values of BUN, Cr, AST and ALP.

CONCLUSION

Based on the findings in this study, MGSF with varied compounds contents could still keep the laxative effect while retain less subchronic toxicity, which emphasized the necessity of processing and provided an insight into the rational use of MGSF in clinical practice.

High-efficient extraction of principal medicinal components from fresh Phellodendron bark (cortex phellodendri)

There are three key medicinal components (phellodendrine, berberine and palmatine) in the extracts of Phellodendron bark, as one of the fundamental herbs of traditional Chinese medicine. Different extraction methods and solvent combinations were investigated to obtain the optimal technologies for high-efficient extraction of these medicinal components. Results: The results showed that combined solvents have higher extracting effect of phellodendrine, berberine and palmatine than single solvent, and the effect of ultrasonic extraction is distinctly better than those of distillation and soxhlet extraction. Conclusion: The hydrochloric acid/methanol-ultrasonic extraction has the best effect for three medicinal components of fresh Phellodendron bark, providing an extraction yield of 103.12 mg/g berberine, 24.41 mg/g phellodendrine, 1.25 mg/g palmatine.

The modified Yi qi decoction protects cardiac ischemia-reperfusion induced injury in rats

BACKGROUND

To investigate the effects and involved mechanisms of the modified Yi Qi decoction (MYQ) in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion (IR) induced injury.

METHODS

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to a 30-min coronary arterial occlusion followed by reperfusion, low or high dose decoction of MYQ was administrated orally for 1 week or 1 month.

RESULTS

Both in 1 week and 1 month IR rat groups, cardiac function indexes were significantly impaired compared with sham group rats, accompanied with higher ratio of infarct size to risk size, decreased expressions of sodium calcium exchanger (NCX1) and sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (Serca2a), and different expressions of autophagic proteins, Beclin-1 and LC3. Treatment with MYQ (low or high dose) for 1 week showed no marked beneficial effects on cardiac function and cardiac injury (ratio of infarct size to risk size), although expressions of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, NCX1 and Serca2a were increased. Treatment with MYQ (low or high dose) for 1 month showed significantly improved effects on cardiac function and cardiac injury (ratio of infarct size to risk size), accompanied with increase of Bcl-2, NCX1 and Serca2a expressions, and decrease of Bax (a pro-apoptotic protein) and Beclin-1 expressions.

CONCLUSIONS

The results show that MYQ have potential therapeutic effects on IR-induced cardiac injury, which may be through regulation of apoptotic proteins, cytosolic Ca2+ handling proteins and autophagic proteins signal pathways.

The Progress of Metabolomics Study in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played important roles in health protection and disease treatment for thousands of years in China and has gained the gradual acceptance of the international community. However, many intricate issues, which cannot be explained by traditional methods, still remain, thus, new ideas and technologies are needed. As an emerging system biology technology, the holistic view adopted by metabolomics is similar to that of TCM, which allows us to investigate TCM with complicated conditions and multiple factors in depth. In this paper, we tried to give a timely and comprehensive update about the methodology progression of metabolomics, as well as its applications, in different fields of TCM studies including quality control, processing, safety and efficacy evaluation. The herbs investigated by metabolomics were selected for detailed examination, including Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge, Atractylodes macrocephala Kidd, Pinellia ternate, etc.; furthermore, some valuable results have been obtained and summarized. In conclusion, although the study of metabolomics is at the early phase and requires further scrutiny and validation, it still provides bright prospects to dissect the synergistic action of multiple components from TCM. Overall, with the further development of analytical techniques, especially multi-analysis techniques, we expect that metabolomics will greatly promote TCM research and the establishment of international standards, which is beneficial to TCM modernization.

Toxicology effects of morning glory seed in rat: a metabonomic method for profiling of urine metabolic changes

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Morning Glory Seed (MGS) is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine which is widely used for the treatment of edema, ascites, hydroncus, simple obesity, lung fever and ardent fever. In recent years, long-term exposure to Morning Glory Seed (MGS) has shown to pose progressive renal damage in clinical practice. We hypothesize that changes in metabolic profile could have occurred before symptoms were observed, which may allow early treatment.

AIM OF THE STUDY

To investigate the metabolic changes caused by Morning Glory Seed-induced renal damage.

METHOD

Metabonomics method was used for chronic toxicology study of MGS in Wistar rats. With a therapeutic dose, the model rats were orally administered the extract of MGS for 10 weeks continuously. The urine samples of model and control rats were collected in various time-points and the endogenous metabolites were analyzed by ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The identification of all the potential biomarkers was performed using reference standard by comparing their mass spectra, MS/MS fragmentation and retention time. Furthermore, histopathology and clinical chemistry studies were carried out to ensure the success of MGS-induced nephrotoxicity model.

RESULTS

The difference in metabolic profiles between the control and the dosed rats was well observed by the principal component analysis (PCA) of the MS spectra. Significant changes of 12 metabolite biomarkers were detected in the rat urine samples. Metabonomics method could discriminate the model rats from the control rats in 2nd, 6th and 10th week respectively before serious organic damage of kidney was found in 10th week by histopathology method.

CONCLUSION

We believe that metabolic profiling may act as a preclinical protocol for MGS exposure before symptoms are observed.

Prescriptions of Chinese herbal medicine for constipation under the national health insurance in Taiwan

BACKGROUND

Constipation is a common gastrointestinal problem worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of use and prescriptive patterns of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in treating constipation by analyzing the claims data of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) from the National Health Insurance (NHI) in Taiwan.

METHODS

The computerized claims dataset of the TCM office visits and the corresponding prescription files in 2004 compiled by the NHI Research Institute in Taiwan were linked and processed. Visit files with the single diagnostic coding of constipation (ICD-9-CM code 564.0) were extracted to analyze the frequency and pattern of corresponding CHM prescriptions. The association rule was applied to analyze the co-prescription of CHM in treating constipation.

RESULTS

There were 152,564 subjects who visited TCM clinics only for constipation in Taiwan during 2004 and received a total of 387,268 CHM prescriptions. Subjects between 20 and 29 years of age comprised the largest number of those treated (25.5%). Female subjects used CHM for constipation more frequently than male subjects (female:male = 3.31:1). There was an average of 4.6 items of single Chinese herbs or formula in a single prescription for constipation. Ma-zi-renwan was the most commonly prescribed herbal formula, while Da-huang (Rheum palmatum) was the most commonly used single Chinese herb. According to the association rule, the most common prescribed pattern of 2-drug combination of CHM for treating constipation was Ban-xia-xie-xin-tang plus Ma-zi-ren-wan, while the 3-drug combination of CHM was Fang-feng-tong-sheng-san, Rheum palmatum and Ma-zi-ren-wan.

CONCLUSION

This study showed the pattern of single Chinese herbs or herbal formulae used in treating constipation in Taiwan. Further clinical trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of these CHMs in treating constipation.