TCDO: A Community-Based Ontology for Integrative Representation and Analysis of Traditional Chinese Drugs and Their Properties

Traditional Chinese drugs (TCDs) have been widely used in clinical practice in China and many other regions for thousands of years. Nowadays TCD’s bioactive ingredients and mechanisms of action are being identified. However, the lack of standardized terminologies or ontologies for the description of TCDs has hindered the interoperability and deep analysis of TCD knowledge and data. By aligning with the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), an ISO-approved top-level ontology, we constructed a community-driven TCD ontology (TCDO) with the aim of supporting standardized TCD representation and integrated analysis. TCDO provides logical and textual definitions of TCDs, TCD categories, and the properties of TCDs (i.e., nature, flavor, toxicity, and channel tropism). More than 400 popular TCD decoction pieces (TCD-DPs) and Chinese medicinal materials (CMMs) are systematically represented. The logical TCD representation in TCDO supports computer-assisted reasoning and queries using tools such as Description Logic (DL) and SPARQL queries. Our statistical analysis of the knowledge represented in TCDO revealed scientific insights about TCDs. A total of 36 TCDs with medium or high toxicity are most densely distributed, primarily in Aconitum genus, Lamiids clade, and Fabids clade. TCD toxicity is mostly associated with the hot nature and pungent or bitter flavors and has liver, kidney, and spleen channel tropism. The three pairs of TCD flavor-nature associations (i.e., bitter-cold, pungent-warm, and sweet-neutral) were identified. The significance of these findings is discussed. TCDO has also been used to support the development of a web-based traditional Chinese medicine semantic annotation system that provides comprehensive annotation for individual TCDs. As a novel formal TCD ontology, TCDO lays out a strong foundation for more advanced TCD studies in the future.

The Effect of Shenyi Capsule on Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Combined with Chemotherapy from the Yin-Yang Perspective

As an example of Shenyi capsule on non-small-cell lung cancer combined with chemotherapy, this review discusses the synergistic effect and mechanism of natural drugs in oncotherapy from the yin-yang perspective in ancient Chinese philosophy, so as to reflect the therapeutic principle of natural drugs for tumor more comprehensively. The major focuses of this review are on the philosophical thinking of yin-yang as a tool which can not only explain the effect of Shenyi capsule in NSCLC combined with chemotherapy but also explore the mechanism of Shenyi capsule at the cellular and molecular level. Learning from the “yin-yang” thinking of ancient Chinese philosophy will bring more enlightenment to the research and development of traditional Chinese drugs in the future.

Is Traditional Chinese Medicine “Mainstream” in China? Trends in Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Resources and Their Utilization in Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospitals from 2004 to 2016

Background. Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) has attracted increasing attention in developed countries, but its mainstream status in China, the home of TCAM, is unclear. Over the period of 2004–2016, we analyze the health resources and health resource utilization of traditional medicine in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals in China. Methods. Over 2004–2016, we obtained data from all TCM hospitals in all Chinese provinces to create a hospital-based, longitudinal dataset. TCM health resources and their utilization were measured by two outcome variables: (1) primary outcome variables comprising the proportion of TCM physicians, TCM pharmacists, revenue from TCM drugs, and TCM prescriptions and (2) the secondary outcome variables, as proxies of westernization for TCM hospitals, comprising the number of medical equipment above RMB 10,000 and the proportion of surgery in inpatient visits. We used linear regression models with hospital-fixed effects to analyze time trends for the outcome variables. Results. The number of public TCM hospitals remained stable from 2004 to 2016, while the number of private TCM hospitals increased from 294 in 2004 to 1560 in 2016. There was a small percentage increase in the proportion of TCM physicians (0.280%), TCM pharmacists (0.298%), and revenue from Chinese medicines (0.331%) and TCM prescriptions (1.613%) per hospital per year. Chinese drugs accounted for less than a half of the total drug prescriptions, and accordingly, just one-third of the drug revenue was from Chinese medicines at TCM hospitals. The proportions of physicians, pharmacists, revenue from Chinese drug sales, and traditional medicine prescriptions never reach the 60% benchmark target for mainstream in TCM hospitals. As proxies for Western medicine practices in TCM hospitals, the number of medical equipment above RMB 10,000 rapidly rose by over 13 percent per hospital per year, but the proportion of inpatient surgeries declined by 0.830 percentage points per hospital per year, reflecting a mixed trend in the use of Western medicine practices. Conclusion. For the 2004–2016 period, traditional medicine, although making progress towards the mainstream benchmark of 60% TCM services, was still not mainstream at TCM hospitals.

Current Drugs with Potential for Treatment of COVID-19: A Literature Review

Purpose: SARS-CoV-2 first emerged in China in December 2019 and rapidly spread worldwide. No vaccine or approved drug is available to eradicate the virus, however, some drugs that are indicated for other afflictions seems to be potentially beneficial to treat the infection albeit without unequivocal evidence. The aim of this article is to review the published background on the effectiveness of these drugs against COVID-19 Methods: A thorough literature search was conducted on recently published studies which have published between January 1 to March 25, 2020. PubMed, Google Scholar and Science Direct databases were searched Results: A total 22 articles were found eligible. 8 discuss about treatment outcomes from their applied drugs during treatment of COVID-19 patients, 4 report laboratory tests, one report animal trial and other 9 articles discuss recommendations and suggestions based on the treatment process and clinical outcomes of other diseases such as malaria, ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The data and/or recommendations are categorized in 4 classes: (a) anti-viral and anti-inflammatory drugs, (b) anti-malaria drugs, (c) traditional Chinese drugs and (d) other treatments/drugs. Conclusion: All examined treatments, although potentiality effective against COVID-19, need either appropriate drug development or clinical trial to be suitable for clinical use.

Clinical characteristics and current treatment of critically ill patients with COVID-19 outside Wuhan, China: a multicenter, retrospective, observational study

Background: A novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan and rapidly spread elsewhere. The clinical characteristics and treatment of critical ill patients outside Wuhan remain unknown. We aimed to describe the epidemiology and treatment of critical ill patients with COVID-19 in Hebei province.Methods: All patients were from designated hospitals of Hebei province and fit the criteria. We collected the clinical data, laboratory examinations and treatment of all participants.Results: By 14 February 2020, 37 critical ill patients were included. The mean age of the patients was 58.73 (SD 13.76) years, 21 (56.80%) patients were men, 18 (48.60%) were familial cluster, 26 (70.30%) patients had chronic illness. The patients with critical type had a longer period of confirmation time, more severe inflammation and lung injury, a lower lymphocyte percentage. All patients were treated with antiviral agents, 33 (89.20%) with antibacterial agents, 35 (95.60%) patients with methylprednisolone and traditional Chinese drugs. Nine (60.00%) patients with critical type were treated with invasive mechanical ventilation, 9 (60.00%) of those with complications. The patients with critical type received more fluid and more diuretics.Conclusion: Patients with underlying disease and the confirmation time> 10 days were more likely to develop to critical type. The critical type patients had higher risk of infection, respiratory depression, circulatory collapse, and complications. The strategy of lung-protective mechanical ventilation and restrictive fluid management should be strictly followed.

Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine for Whitening

Melanin is the chief pigment responsible for the pigmentation of human skin. Increasing evidence indicates that traditional Chinese drugs with skin-whitening effects are attracting the attention of consumers and researchers because they are perceived to be milder, safer, and healthier than synthetic alternatives. This commentary summarizes the current research on Chinese herbal medicines that inhibit melanin and their biological activities. The findings presented in this study suggest that these traditional Chinese herbal medicines might be potential candidates for novel skin-whitening agents.