Cytokine Gene Expression Profiles in Human Lymphocytes Induced by a Formula of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Vigconic VI-28

In our precious study, the correlation between cold and hot patterns in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and gene expression profiles in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been explored. Based on TCM theory, deficiency pattern is another key pattern diagnosis among RA patients, which leads to a specific treatment principle in clinical management. Therefore, a further analysis was performed aiming at exploring the characteristic gene expression profile of deficiency pattern and its correlation with cold and hot patterns in RA patients by bioinformatics analysis approach based on gene expression profiles data detected with microarray technology. The TCM deficiency pattern-related genes network comprises 7 significantly, highly connected regions which are mainly involved in protein transcription processes, protein ubiquitination, toll-like receptor activated NF-κB regulated gene transcription and apoptosis, RNA clipping, NF-κB signal, nucleotide metabolism-related apoptosis, and immune response processes. Toll-like receptor activated NF-κB regulated gene transcription and apoptosis pathways are potential specific pathways related to TCM deficiency patterns in RA patients; TCM deficiency pattern is probably related to immune response. Network analysis can be used as a powerful tool for detecting the characteristic mechanism related to specific TCM pattern and the correlations between different patterns.

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GEPSI: A Gene Expression Profile Similarity-Based Identification Method of Bioactive Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine Formula

Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine ◽

10.1155/2018/6935350 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Baixia Zhang ◽

Shuaibing He ◽

Chenyang Lv ◽

Yanling Zhang ◽

Yun Wang

Keyword(s):

Gene Expression ◽

Molecular Docking ◽

Chinese Medicine ◽

Traditional Chinese Medicine ◽

Small Molecule ◽

Expression Profiles ◽

Gene Expression Profiles ◽

Bioactive Components ◽

Target Proteins ◽

Small Molecule Drugs

The identification of bioactive components in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an important part of the TCM material foundation research. Recently, molecular docking technology has been extensively used for the identification of TCM bioactive components. However, target proteins that are used in molecular docking may not be the actual TCM target. For this reason, the bioactive components would likely be omitted or incorrect. To address this problem, this study proposed the GEPSI method that identified the target proteins of TCM based on the similarity of gene expression profiles. The similarity of the gene expression profiles affected by TCM and small molecular drugs was calculated. The pharmacological action of TCM may be similar to that of small molecule drugs that have a high similarity score. Indeed, the target proteins of the small molecule drugs could be considered TCM targets. Thus, we identified the bioactive components of a TCM by molecular docking and verified the reliability of this method by a literature investigation. Using the target proteins that TCM actually affected as targets, the identification of the bioactive components was more accurate. This study provides a fast and effective method for the identification of TCM bioactive components.

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