[Tumor inhibiting and immunoloregulation effects of Mylabris Mixture on H22 cancer-bearing mice]

The Role of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Cancer Immunotherapy: Current Status and Future Directions

The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in the development of tumors. Immunoregulatory cells and cytokines facilitate cancer cells to avoid immune surveillance. Overexpression of immune checkpoint molecules such as CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibits immune function and enables cancer cells to avoid clearance by the immune system. Thus, minimizing tumor immunosuppression could be an important strategy for cancer therapy. Currently, many immune checkpoint-targeted drugs, such as PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, have been approved for marketing and have shown unique advantages in the clinical treatment of cancers. The concept of "strengthening resistance to eliminate pathogenic factors" in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is consistent with the immunotherapy of cancer. According to previous studies, the role of TCM in tumor immunotherapy is mainly associated with the positive regulation of natural killer cells, CD8/CD4 T cells, dendritic cells, M2 macrophages, interleukin-2, tumor necrosis factor-[Formula: see text], and IFN-[Formula: see text], as well as with the negative regulation of Tregs, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, PD-1/PD-L1, transforming growth factor-[Formula: see text], and tumor necrosis factor-[Formula: see text]. This paper summarizes the current research on the effect of TCM targeting the TME, and further introduces the research progress on studying the effects of TCM on immune checkpoints. Modern pharmacological studies have demonstrated that TCM can directly or indirectly affect the TME by inhibiting the overexpression of immune checkpoint molecules and enhancing the efficacy of tumor immunotherapy. TCM with immunomodulatory stimulation could be the key factor to achieve benefits from immunotherapy for patients with non-inflammatory, or "cold", tumors.

Traditional Chinese medicine for prevention and treatment of hepatocarcinoma: From bench to bedside

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played a positive role in the management of hepatocarcinoma. Hepatocarcinoma patients may present Qi-stagnation, damp-heat, blood stasis, Qi-deficiency, Yin-deficiency and other TCM syndromes (Zheng). Modern treatments such as surgery, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and high intensity focus ultrasound treatment would influence the manifestation of TCM syndromes. Herbs with traditional efficacy of tonifying Qi, blood and Yin, soothing liver-Qi stagnation, clearing heat and detoxifying and dissolving stasis, have been demonstrated to be potent to prevent hepatocarcinogenesis. TCM has been widely used in all aspects of integrative therapy in hepatocarcinoma, including surgical resection, liver transplantation, TACE, local ablative therapies and even as monotherapy for middle-advanced stage hepatocarcinoma. Clinical practices have confirmed that TCM is effective to alleviate clinical symptoms, improve quality of life and immune function, prevent recurrence and metastasis, delay tumor progression, and prolong survival time in hepatocarcinoma patients. The effective mechanism of TCM against hepatocarcinoma is related to inducing apoptosis, autophagy, anoikis and cell senescence, arresting cell cycle, regulating immune function, inhibiting metastasis and angiogenesis, reversing drug resistance and enhancing effects of chemotherapy. Along with the progress of research in this field, TCM will contribute more to the prevention and treatment of hepatocarcinoma.

Authentication of the 31 species of toxic and potent Chinese Materia medica (T/PCMM) by microscopic technique, part 1: three kinds of toxic and potent animal CMM

Microscopic authentication is an effective method for quality control of Chinese Materia Medica (CMM) because of its speed, convenience and low cost. However, the application of modern microscopic technique in quality evaluation of Toxic and Potent Chinese Materia Medica (T/PCMM) of animal origin is seldom reported. This gap in published knowledge is increasingly serious because confusion in T/PCMM has led to serious medical problems in China and other countries in recent years. To ensure the safe and effective use of T/PCMM, an accurate and convenient method, based on macroscopic and microscopic techniques, was developed for the authentication of animal T/PCMM. The color microscopic photos of the crude drug were acquired with the light microscope, and from these their morphological and microscopic characters were described. The present method was successfully applied in the analysis of 31 T/PCMM including 17 samples originating from plants, 3 from animals, 9 from minerals, and the remaining 2 from secreta. The macro- and microscopic characters of three animal T/PCMM, namely Mylabris (Mylabris phalerata or Mylabris cichorii), Huechys (Huechys sanguinea), and Lytta (Lytta caraganae) were conclusively determined and are here presented. The results demonstrated that it was feasible to use the present microscopic characters for the authentication of the above three animal T/PCMM.