Fuzhengpaidu granule regulates immune activation molecules CD38 and human leukocyte antigen-D related on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome/human immunodeficiency virus

The Importance of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Intervention and Treatment of HIV while Considering its Safety and Efficacy

Natural products have been considered a potential resource for the development of novel therapeutic agents, since time immemorial. It is an opportunity to discover cost-effective and safe drugs at the earliest, with the goal to hit specific targets in the HIV life cycle. Natural products with inhibitory activity against human immunodeficiency virus are terpenes, coumarins, flavonoids, curcumin, proteins, such as lectins, laccases, bromotyrosines, and ribosome-inactivating proteins. Terpenes inhibit virus fusion, lectins and flavonoids have an inhibitory impact on viral binding, curcumin and flavonoids inhibit viral DNA integration. The most important medicinal plants which have been used in traditional Chinese medicinal sciences with anti-HIV properties are Convallaria majalis, Digitalis lanata, Cassia fistula, Croton macrostachyus, Dodonaea angustifolia, Ganoderma lucidum, Trametes versicolor, Coriolus versicolor, Cordyceps sinensis, Gardenia jasminoides, Morus alba, Scutellaria baicalensis, Ophiopogon japonicus, Platycodon grandiflorus, Fritillaria thunbergii, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, Trichosanthes kirilowii, Citrus reticulata, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Rheum officinale, Poria cocos, Rheum palmatum, Astragalus membranaceus, Morinda citrifolia, Potentilla kleiniana, Artemisia capillaris, Sargassum fusiforme, Piperis longi fructus, Stellera chamaejasme, Curcumae rhizoma, Dalbergia odorifera lignum, Arisaematis Rhizoma preparatum, and Phellodendron amurense. The information provided is gathered from randomized control experiments, review articles, and analytical studies and observations, which are obtained from different literature sources, such as Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct from July 2000 to August 2023. The aim of this review article is to survey and introduce important medicinal plants and herbs that have been used for the treatment of HIV, especially the medicinal plants that are common in traditional Chinese medicine, as research to date is limited, and more evidence is required to confirm TCM,s efficacy.

Treating older patients with AIDS using Traditional Chinese Medicine Combined with Conventional Western Medicine in China

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic and incurable disease. People with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) require lifelong care. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has played an important role in AIDS treatment since the year 2004. TCM offers many advantages including a rich resource of Chinese herbs, lower cost and fewer side effects. In addition to the widespread use of antiviral therapy, TCM offers unique humanistic care and holistic adjustment of the body system. To date, more and more patients are benefiting from TCM not only in China. In this article, we describe the feasibility of treating AIDS with TCM.

[Comment on the intervention of Traditional Chinese Medicine on survival rates of patients living with human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome]

Despite many differences between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and conventional medicine, the use of TCM in the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is increasingly recognized and accepted by patients. Recent research findings on the benefits of Chinese herbal medicine on long-term survival in patients with HIV/AIDS are encouraging and hopeful, but inconclusive. More research is needed.

Differences in acquired immune deficiency syndrome treatment and evaluation strategies between Chinese and Western Medicine

Complementary and alternative medicine, including Chinese medicine (CM), has been used to treat acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) foralmost 30 years. We aimed to compare the main differences between AIDS treatment and evaluation strategies between CM and Western Medicine (WM), and analyze advantages and disadvantages. The characteristics of integrative medicine (IM), based on CM and WM, include a patient-centered mode of medicine based on evidence. IM focuses on complex intervention and management with systemic and individual treatment. The evaluation indexes of IM might consist of objective indicators and subjective indexes. IM might be a more valuable method for treating AIDS in the future instead of WM or CM alone.

Effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine in treating acquired immune deficiency syndrome: 2004-2014

Substantial progress has been made in China in using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Our objective was to review the latest developments in TCM treatment of AIDS in China between 2004 and 2014. We reviewed the content of original articles investigating the efficacy and safety of TCM for treating AIDS published in Chinese and English language journals. Relevant references from 2004 to 2014 were found using PubMed and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database. We found that TCM has been widely used for treating AIDS and its complications in China. The number of TCM studies has increased, which indicates efficacy and safety. Measures of efficacy in the reviewed articles included the alleviation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related signs and symptoms, improvements in quality of life, improvements in long-term survival, counteraction of the adverse side effects of antiviral drugs, promotion of immune reconstitution, and improvement of laboratory results. In sum, the literature indicates that TCM is safe. TCM plays an important role in the treatment of AIDS. Some studies have attempted to measure the efficacy and safety of TCM for treating AIDS, but more evidence is needed. Therefore, more research on this topic is required in the future.

Health related quality of life: is it another comprehensive evaluation indicator of Chinese medicine on acquired immune deficiency syndrome treatment?

Health related quality of life (HRQOL) can better reflect changes in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients and inform economic evaluation of AIDS treatment services, and the assessment of HRQOL can help us to detect problems that may influence the progression of the disease, hence HRQOL has become a particularly important assessment indictor for HIV comprehensive interventions. Being a multi-angle, multi-level, and diversified complex intervention, roles of Chinese medicine (CM) in AIDS treatment have been recognized and accepted by more and more patients, and HRQOL has been widely used to evaluate the comprehensive management effects of CM on AIDS. In this article, the authors analyze the definition and measurement of HRQOL, measurement of HRQOL of HIV/AIDS patients and effects of CM on AIDS, and give some reasonable advices for the usage of the scale of HRQOL. The authors hold that some new HRQOL instruments specific for CM treatment of AIDS should be developed and further prospective studies should be carried out to demonstrate the practicality, reliability and validity of HRQOL as an evaluation indictor for CM treatment of AIDS.

Survival rate: an indicator of the management of acquired immune deficiency syndrome using Traditional Chinese Medicine

Complementary and alternative medicine, including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), has been used as therapy against acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) for almost 30 years. Based on evaluation indicators for AIDS treatment using TCM, we discuss why the survival rate (which has been used widely in Western Medicine) should be adopted as a new important indicator of TCM treatment for AIDS. We advise that further prospective or retrospective cohort studies should be carried out to confirm this hypothesis.

Asymptomatic stage of human immunodeficiency virus infection is the optimal timing for its management with Traditional Chinese Medicine

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a worldwide public health problem and an incurable disease. The roles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on AIDS had been recognized and accepted by more and more people. Being a relatively long period, to initiate combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) for the asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection patient is not consensus. According to TCM theory, not only the imbalance of Yin and Yang but also the disharmony of internal body function and external natural environment had occurred in the body of the patient, the imbalance and the disharmony should be adjusted by the means of the treatment based on the patters identified among the symptoms in terms of TCM. We aimed to analyze the feature of patients with asymptomatic infection, and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the us- age of cART for asymptomatic infection, explored the possible mechanism underlying TCM treatment of the asymptomatic infection, by reviewing the TCM treatment progress on asymptomatic HIV infection.