A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of Taoren Honghua Jian granule in patients with stable coronary artery disease

Immunometabolism at the service of traditional Chinese medicine

To enhance therapeutic efficacy and reduce adverse effects, ancient practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescribe combinations of plant species/animal species and minerals designated "TCM formulae" developed based on TCM theory and clinical experience. TCM formulae have been shown to exert curative effects on complex diseases via immune regulation but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown at present. Considerable progress in the field of immunometabolism, referring to alterations in the intracellular metabolism of immune cells that regulate their function, has been made over the past decade. The core context of immunometabolism is regulation of the allocation of metabolic resources supporting host defense and survival, which provides a critical additional dimension and emerging insights into how the immune system and metabolism influence each other during disease progression. This review summarizes research findings on the significant association between the immune function and metabolic remodeling in health and disease as well as the therapeutic modulatory effects of TCM formulae on immunometabolism. Progressive elucidation of the immunometabolic mechanisms involved during the course of TCM treatment continues to aid in the identification of novel potential targets against pathogenicity. In this report, we have provided a comprehensive overview of the benefits of TCM based on regulation of immunometabolism that are potentially applicable for the treatment of modern diseases.

Traditional Chinese Medicine for Coronary Artery Disease Treatment: Clinical Evidence From Randomized Controlled Trials

Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of more than 2,000 years and has been widely used in clinical practice. However, due to the lack of a reliable scientific basis, the role of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease is not clear. At present, the existing randomized controlled trials about traditional Chinese medicine for coronary artery disease have defects, small sample sizes, and different results, so it is difficult to make a clear conclusion on the actual advantages and disadvantages of traditional Chinese medicine. In this review, the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine in the prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease were systematically evaluated through randomized controlled trials, most of which were double-blind trials. We reviewed 17 randomized controlled trials that included a total of 11,726 coronary artery disease patients. The methodological quality of the trials was generally high, with nine (52.94%) having a modified Jadad score of 7 and only three (17.65%) having a modified Jadad score of <3. There are 16 trials (94.12%) reporting safety; the safety of traditional Chinese medicine seems not to be inferior to that of mimetic, placebo, or western medications. Moreover, the results from 17 randomized controlled trials (100.00%) showed that traditional Chinese medicine can be applied as a complementary and alternative method to the primary and secondary prevention of coronary artery disease, and only six trials (35.29%) described adverse cardiovascular events specifically. However, it is necessary to assess the safety and efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine in treating coronary artery disease with long-term hard endpoints.

Comparative Analysis on Single- and Multiherb Strategies in Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis Therapy

Herbal medicine unswervingly serves human health by modernizing preparation and administration. Coronary artery atherosclerosis is a serious threat to human health and survival all over the world. Following experimental and clinical evidence, we collected four herbal treatments containing herbal strategy I (San Qi), II (Injectio Salvia Miltiorrhizae), III (Danhong injection), and IV (Taoren Honghua Jian granule) against coronary artery disease. In order to analyze their similarities and differences in controlling coronary artery atherosclerosis, we investigated each herb of four strategies and revealed that the number of active components and molecule targets is increasing with the herb category of herbal strategy. Nitric oxide-associated carbonate dehydratase activity and nitrogen metabolism are tacitly enriched by target corresponding genes with statistical significance in four strategies. The herbal strategy with multiherb not merely possesses more amounts and interactions of target proteins than the strategy with single-herb but also enlarges interaction partners of target proteins like PTPN11 and STAT3 in strategy II, III, and IV. Whereas single-herb also involves regulating network core proteins in consistent with compatibility, such as SRC and PIK3R1 that are mostly targeted by strategy I, III, and IV. Comparing the targets of the herbal strategies and three existing drugs (atenolol, pravastatin and propranolol) and the symbols of coronary artery atherosclerosis, we discovered that MAOA, HTR1A, and ABCG2 are overlapping in the three groups. Hence, our work enables people to better understand the connections and distinctions of single- and multiherb on the healing of coronary artery atherosclerosis.

Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine for Acute Guillain-barré Syndrome Treatment

Introduction

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a worldwide demyelinating polyradiculopathy and polyneuropathy. Currently, there is no specific drug for GBS, and established treatment is generally based on immune-modulating treatment with plasma exchange or intravenous immunoglobulin in combination with supportive care. This study aimed to investigate the efficiency of integrated Chinese and Western medicine for acute GBS treatment.

Methods

We enrolled 73 subjects, and randomly divided them into two groups: 35 cases in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) group, and 28 in the Control group. The Control group was treated with the common Western medicine for one month; and the TCM group was administrated with one month of common treatment combined with TCM medication.

Results

Compared to the controls, TCM significantly enhanced the treatment efficiency in symptom expression, including the TCM syndrome score, the activity of daily living score, Hughes functional score and sensory dysfunction assessment. The total effective rate of the TCM group was 94.29%, significantly better than controls (78.59%). Moreover, TCM provide better improvement in motor nerve conduction functions (distal motor latency and motor conduction velocity) and sensory nerve conduction functions (sensory conduction velocity and sensory nerve action potential) in median nerve, ulnar nerve, and common fibular nerve.

Conclusion

When combined with TCM administration, the GBS treatment could acquire better outcomes.