Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Treasured Natural Resource of Anticancer Drug Research and Development

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (03) ◽  
pp. 543-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao-Yun Wang ◽  
Xian-Yong Bai ◽  
Chun-Hua Wang

To discover and develop novel natural compounds, active ingredients, single herbs and combination formulas or prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with therapeutic selectivity that can preferentially kill cancer cells and inhibit the amplification of cancer without significant toxicity is an important area in cancer therapy. A lot of valuable TCMs were applied as alternative or complementary medicines in the United States and Europe. But these TCMs, as one of the main natural resources, were widely used to research and develop new drugs in Asia. In TCMs, some specific herbs, animals, minerals and combination formulas were recorded and exploited due to their active ingredients and specific natural compounds with antitumor activities. The article focused on the antitumor properties of natural compounds and combination formulas or prescriptions in TCMs, described its influence on tumor progression, angiogenesis, metastasis, and revealed its mechanisms of antitumor and inhibitory action. Among the nature compounds, triptolide, berberine, matrine, oxymatrine, kurarinone and deoxypodophyllotoxin (DPT) with specific molecular structures have been separated, purified, and evaluated their antitumor properties in vitro and in vivo. Cancer is a multifactorial and multistep disease, so the treatment effect of combination formulas and prescriptions in TCMs involving multi-targets and multi-signal pathways on tumor may be superior than that of agents targeting a single molecular target alone. Shi Quan Da Bu Tang and Yanshu injection, as well known combination formulas and prescriptions in TCMs, have shown an excellent therapeutic effect on cancer.

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (04) ◽  
pp. 707-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zefeng Zhao ◽  
Xirui He ◽  
Cuixia Ma ◽  
Shaoping Wu ◽  
Ye Cuan ◽  
...  

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history and been widely used in prevention and treatment of epilepsy in China. This paper is intended to review the advances in the active anticonvulsant compounds isolated from herbs in the prescription of TCM in the treatment of epilepsy. These compounds were introduced with the details including classification, CAS number specific structure and druggability data. Meanwhile, much of the research in these compounds in the last two decades has shown that they exhibited favorable pharmacological properties in treatment of epilepsy both in in vivo and in vitro models. In addition, in this present review, the evaluation of the effects of the anticonvulsant classical TCM prescriptions is discussed. According to these rewarding pharmacological effects and chemical substances, the prescription of TCM herbs could be an effective therapeutic strategy for epilepsy patients, and also could be a promising source for the development of new drugs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pian Ying ◽  
Yingping Zhu

Abstract Purpose: Based on the method of network pharmacology to explore the mechanism of the Cervical Prescription(CP) in the treatment of cervical cancer(CC) . Methods: To obtain the active ingredients and potential targets of CP from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP) ; To search for targets related to cervical cancer through the database, and map the CP and the targets; Screen the core Targets, a Chinese medicine compoundtarget network and STRING database was used to construct a protein-protein interaction network (PPI). The DAVID 6.8 online tool was used to perform gene ontology (GO) and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genome (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses of overlapping targets. Results: The CP contains 2 active ingredients, corresponding to 301 non-reactive targets; 10 GO biological process related items and 73 signal pathways were obtained. Conclusion: By constructing a network diagram of "components-targets-pathways", 1Project fund: Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation Project(CN) (LQ20H270016); Zhejiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Administration (CN) (2020ZB087). *Profile of the author: Zhu Yingping, (1987-), female, attending physician, from Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, master's degree student, research direction: Chinese medicine prevention and treatment of gynecological malignancies; E-mail: [email protected] this study revealed that CP can exert its efficacy through multiple components, multiple targets, and multiple pathways to achieve the purpose of preventing and treating CC.The network pharmacology-based approach in the present study showed promising potential for identifying the main therapeutic targets from TCM formulas. This study provides valuable information for TCM researchers and clinicians to better understand the main therapeutic targets and therapeutic roles of herbal decoctions in clinical settings.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252508
Author(s):  
Jingyun Jin ◽  
Bin Chen ◽  
Xiangyang Zhan ◽  
Zhiyi Zhou ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
...  

Background and objective We aimed to predict the targets and signal pathways of Xiao-Chai-Hu-Tang (XCHT) in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) based on network pharmacology, just as well as to further analyze its anti-CRC material basis and mechanism of action. Methods We adopted Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database (TCMSP) and Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Database (TCMID) databases to screen the active ingredients and potential targets of XCHT. CRC-related targets were retrieved by analyzing published microarray data (accession number GSE110224) from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. The common targets were used to construct the “herb-active ingredient-target” network using the Cytoscape 3.8.0 software. Next, we constructed and analyzed protein-to-protein interaction (PPI) using BisoGenet and CytoNCA plug-in in Cytoscape. We then performed Gene Ontology (GO) functional and the Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses of target genes using the R package of clusterProfiler. Furthermore, we used the AutoDock Tools software to conduct molecular docking studies on the active ingredients and key targets to verify the network pharmacological analysis results. Results We identified a total of 71 active XCHT ingredients and 20 potential anti-CRC targets. The network analysis revealed quercetin, stigmasterol, kaempferol, baicalein, and acacetin as potential key compounds, and PTGS2, NR3C2, CA2, and MMP1 as potential key targets. The active ingredients of XCHT interacted with most CRC disease targets. We showed that XCHT’s therapeutic effect was attributed to its synergistic action (multi-compound, multi-target, and multi-pathway). Our GO enrichment analysis showed 46 GO entries, including 20 biological processes, 6 cellular components, and 20 molecular functions. We identified 11 KEGG signaling pathways, including the IL-17, TNF, Toll-like receptor, and NF-kappa B signaling pathways. Our results showed that XCHT could play a role in CRC treatment by regulating different signaling pathways. The molecular docking experiment confirmed the correlation between five core compounds (quercetin, stigmasterol, kaempferol, baicalein, and acacetin) just as well as PTGS2, NR3C2, CA2, and MMP1. Conclusion In this study, we described the potential active ingredients, possible targets, and key biological pathways responsible for the efficacy of XCHT in CRC treatment, providing a theoretical basis for further research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 437-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruizhou Wang ◽  
Lu Han ◽  
Qixia Gao ◽  
Dan Chen ◽  
Yun Wang ◽  
...  

Many clinical diseases are accompanied by the symptoms of pain, and the degree of pain is closely related to the patients’ suffering. Therefore, effectively relieving pain has become one of the vital concerns of clinical treatment and analgesic drug research. Non-opioid drugs are mainly used for the clinical treatment of mild to moderate pain, whereas opioid drugs are mainly used for treating moderate to severe pain. However, opioid drugs easily elicit adverse reactions, such as gastrointestinal discomfort, addiction, dependence, and so on. Traditional Chinese medicine and its active ingredients have unique advantages in the treatment of pain for quite a long time, and many analgesic drugs directly or indirectly were isolatiedfrom Chinese medicine or natural products, such as Liu Suan Yan Hu Suo Yi Su Pian and aspirin. With the development and modernization of research on herbal medicine more and more studies have been conducted on the active ingredients and mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine analgesics. However, no review has been done on analgesic active components and their mechanisms. In this paper, 81 active components with clear chemical structure and definite analgesic effects in vivo and in vitro of traditional Chinese medicine and mechanisms of action reported in recent literatures are reviewed and summarized to provide reference for clinical analgesia and analgesics research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (38) ◽  
pp. 5128-5141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian-Shu Lou ◽  
Ping Yao ◽  
Karl W.K. Tsim

The main challenge of cancer treatment is multidrug resistance during chemotherapy. Cancer cell can evade cell death during every round of orthodox chemotherapy drugs, consequently being resistant after several rounds of standard drug treatment. One of the regimens to address this multidrug resistance problem is by drug combination. However, synthetic drugs always have problems of strong side effects and toxicity. Natural compounds deriving from traditional Chinese medicine are known to have low toxicity and genuine promising effects in reversing multidrug resistance, either induced by orthodox chemotherapeutic or targeted therapy drugs. Numerous mechanisms including suppression of drug efflux, detoxifying systems, DNA repair systems, and anti-apoptosis pathways were responsible for such process. A range of natural compounds functioned on the suppression of apoptosis are widely reported, which include flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, quinones, xanthones, saponins and polysaccharides. Here, this review summarized comprehensive data from in vitro and in vivo studies to elucidate the functional roles of natural compounds in reversing multidrug resistance during cancer therapy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Wang ◽  
Shuyan Li ◽  
Leilei Wang ◽  
Kai Lin ◽  
Jialun Du ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common and serious microvascular complication of diabetes. Taohong Siwu decoction (THSWD), a famous traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescription, has been proved to have a good clinical effect on DR, whereas its molecular mechanism remains unclear. Our study aimed to uncover the core targets and signaling pathways of THSWD against DR. Methods First, the active ingredients of THSWD were searched from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) Database. Second, the targets of active ingredients were identified from ChemMapper and PharmMapper databases. Third, DR associated targets were searched from DisGeNET, DrugBank and Therapeutic Target Database (TTD). Subsequently, the common targets of active ingredients and DR were found and analyzed in STRING database. DAVID database and ClueGo plug-in software were used to carry out the gene ontology (GO) and KEGG enrichment analysis. The core signaling pathway network of “herb-ingredient-target” was constructed by the Cytoscape software. Finally, the key genes of THSWD against DR were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results A total of 2340 targets of 61 active ingredients in THSWD were obtained. Simultaneously, a total of 263 DR-associated targets were also obtained. Then, 67 common targets were found by overlapping them, and 23 core targets were identified from protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Response to hypoxia was found as the top GO term of biological process, and HIF-1 signaling pathway was found as the top KEGG pathway. Among the key genes in HIF-1 pathway, the mRNA expression levels of VEGFA, SERPINE1 and NOS2 were significantly down-regulated by THSWD (P < 0.05), and NOS3 and HMOX1 were significantly up-regulated (P < 0.05). Conclusion THSWD had a protective effect on DR via regulating HIF-1 signaling pathway and other important pathways. This study might provide a theoretical basis for the application of THSWD and the development of new drugs for the treatment of DR.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baoyue Zhang ◽  
Jun Zhao ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Pengfei Guo ◽  
Ailin Liu ◽  
...  

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that seriously threatens the health of the elderly. At present, no drugs have been proven to cure or delay the progression of the disease. Due to the multifactorial aetiology of this disease, the multi-target-directed ligand (MTDL) approach provides an innovative and promising idea in search for new drugs against AD. In order to find potential multi-target anti-AD drugs from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulae, a compound database derived from anti-AD Chinese herbal formulae was constructed and predicted by the anti-AD multi-target drug prediction platform established in our laboratory. By analyzing the results of virtual screening, 226 chemical constituents with 3 or more potential AD-related targets were collected, from which 16 compounds that were predicted to combat AD through various mechanisms were chosen for biological validation. Several cell models were established to validate the anti-AD effects of these compounds, including KCl, Aβ, okadaic acid (OA), SNP and H2O2 induced SH-SY5Y cell model and LPS induced BV2 microglia model. The experimental results showed that 12 compounds including Nonivamide, Bavachromene and 3,4-Dimethoxycinnamic acid could protect model cells from AD-related damages and showed potential anti-AD activity. Furthermore, the potential targets of Nonivamide were investigated by molecular docking study and analysis with CDOCKER revealed the possible binding mode of Nonivamide with its predicted targets. In summary, 12 potential multi-target anti-AD compounds have been found from anti-AD TCM formulae by comprehensive application of computational prediction, molecular docking method and biological validation, which laid a theoretical and experimental foundation for in-depth study, also providing important information and new research ideas for the discovery of anti-AD compounds from traditional Chinese medicine.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 602-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee E. Hullender Rubin ◽  
Michael S. Opsahl ◽  
Klaus E. Wiemer ◽  
Scott D. Mist ◽  
Aaron B. Caughey

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 532
Author(s):  
Hae-Soo Yun ◽  
Sylvatrie-Danne Dinzouna-Boutamba ◽  
Sanghyun Lee ◽  
Zin Moon ◽  
Dongmi Kwak ◽  
...  

In traditional Chinese medicine, Ranunculus japonicus has been used to treat various diseases, including malaria, and the young stem of R. japonicus is consumed as a food in the Republic of Korea. However, experimental evidence of the antimalarial effect of R. japonicus has not been evaluated. Therefore, the antimalarial activity of the extract of the young stem of R. japonicus was evaluated in vitro using both chloroquine-sensitive (3D7) and chloroquine-resistant (Dd2) strains; in vivo activity was evaluated in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice via oral administration followed by a four-day suppressive test focused on biochemical and hematological parameters. Exposure to extracts of R. japonicus resulted in significant inhibition of both chloroquine-sensitive (3D7) and resistant (Dd2) strains of P. falciparum, with IC50 values of 6.29 ± 2.78 and 5.36 ± 4.93 μg/mL, respectively. Administration of R. japonicus also resulted in potent antimalarial activity against P. berghei in infected mice with no associated toxicity; treatment also resulted in improved hepatic, renal, and hematologic parameters. These results demonstrate the antimalarial effects of R. japonicus both in vitro and in vivo with no apparent toxicity.


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