Essiac tea: scavenging of reactive oxygen species and effects on DNA damage

Essiac, a tea reportedly developed by the Ojibwa tribe of Canada and widely publicized as a homeopathic cancer treatment, is prepared from a mixture of four herbs Arctium lappa, Rumex acetosella, Ulmus rubra and Rheum officinale. Each of these herbs has been reported to possess antioxidant and anti-cancer activity. Essiac itself has also been reported to demonstrate anti-cancer activity in vitro, although its effects in vivo are still a matter of debate. We prepared an extract of Essiac tea from a concentration of 25mg/mL and boiled it for 10 min. From this preparation we used concentrations of 5, 10, 25 and 50% to measure Essiac effects. In this study, we examined the effects of Essiac on free radical scavenging and DNA damage in a non-cellular system, as well as the effects Essiac on lipid peroxidation using the RAW 264.7 cell line. We observed, using electron spin resonance, that Essiac effectively scavenged hydroxyl, up to 84% reduction in radical signal at the 50% tea preparation concentration, and superoxide radicals, up to 82% reduction in radical signal also at the 50% tea preparation concentration, as well as prevented hydroxyl radical-induced DNA damage. In addition, Essiac inhibited hydroxyl radical-induced lipid peroxidation by up to 50% at the 50% tea preparation concentration. These data indicate that Essiac tea possesses potent antioxidant and DNA-protective activity, properties that are common to natural anti-cancer agents. This study may help to explain the mechanisms behind the reported anti-cancer effects of Essiac.     

大肠癌术后中西医结合治疗现状与展望

综述了中医药在大肠癌术后治疗中的重要作用。目前,大肠癌术后的中西医结合治疗临床研究已经从多角度多方位展开,并取得了大量进展,显示中医药既可协同化疗和放疗杀灭肿瘤细胞,增强放、化疗的敏感性,又可减轻放、化疗的毒副作用,提高其治疗效果,从而起到降低大肠癌复发转移率,改善患者生活质量的作用。     

The efficacy of Chinese medicine for SARS: a review of Chinese publications after the crisis

During the SARS crisis in China, 40-60% infected patients, at some stages of their treatment, received Chinese medicine treatment on top of the standard modern medicine treatment. This practice was endorsed and encouraged by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and some details of the herbal treatment were recommended. A review of the publications during and after the SARS crisis enabled us to get an objective view of the true value of the adjuvant therapy using Chinese medicinal herbs. Of the 130 articles searched, 90 were of reasonable quality and contained sufficient information for the enlightenment of the situation. These were reviewed. The results revealed positive but inconclusive indications about the efficacy of the combined treatments using Chinese medicine as an adjuvant. Positive effects using adjuvant herbal therapy included better control of fever, quicker clearance of chest infection, lesser consumption of steroids and other symptoms relief. In a few reports, some evidences of immunological boosterings were also found. More caution is required on the allegation about the efficacy of herbal medicine for the treatment or prevention of viral infection affecting the respiratory tract, while more clinical studies are indicated.     

Interactions between modern and Chinese medicinal drugs: a general review

While the use of health food and over-the-counter drugs for health promotion and adjuvant therapy is becoming increasingly popular, the concern about adverse effects is mounting. The possible adverse effects that may arise from drug interactions between these herbal preparations and standard modem therapy are equally worrying. Herbal toxicity and adverse effects are well documented in classical Chinese medicinal volumes. Interactions between herbal preparations and standard modem therapy are known. Extensive work needs to be done before useful guidelines can be established. However, based on available reports and clinical observations, some commonly used herbs and Chinese medicines have already demonstrated the need for special attention when used together with modern therapy. This paper analyzes the important material already available, and would serve as a preliminary checklist for patients who are taking herbal preparations, while at the same time receiving treatment from modern medicine.     

中医药治疗前列腺癌的新进展

中医药在前列腺癌的治疗领域尚属起步阶段,在提高患者生活质量、延缓肿瘤转移与进展方面有巨大潜力与发展前景.本文就中医药治疗前列腺癌的病因病机、实验研究及临床研究等方面的进展进行综述.肾气亏虚、瘀血败精聚积下焦是前列腺癌主要的病因病机.辨证论治前列腺癌临床应用广泛,但辨证分型尚未形成统一认识.中药单药提取物与中药复方都有一定的临床疗效,尤其是在提高生活质量方面较为突出.实验研究证明,不同单药及复方都对前列腺癌细胞体外增殖和侵袭有不同程度的抑制作用.     

中药熏洗治疗糖尿病、肿瘤化疗致周围神经病变的疗效观察

目的：观察中药熏洗治疗糖尿病、肿瘤化疗致周围神经病变的效果。方法：80例糖尿病、肿瘤化疗周围神经病变病人随机分为治疗组和对照组,每组40例,对照组采用常规治疗,治疗组在常规治疗的基础上,加用中药熏洗治疗。观察并比较两组病人治疗效果及治疗前后部分症状及体征变化情况。结果：总有效率治疗组为97.5%,对照组为77.5%,2组比较,差异有显著性意义（P﹤0.05）。治疗组治疗后部分症状及体征改善情况优于对照组。结论：中药熏洗治疗糖尿病、肿瘤化疗周围神经病变有明显临床疗效。     

Pharmacological actions and potential uses of Momordica charantia: a review

Since ancient times, plants and herbal preparations have been used as medicine. Research carried out in last few decades has certified several such claims of use of several plants of traditional medicine. Popularity of Momordica charantia (MC) in various systems of traditional medicine for several ailments (antidiabetic, abortifacient, anthelmintic, contraceptive, dysmenorrhea, eczema, emmenagogue, antimalarial, galactagogue, gout, jaundice, abdominal pain, kidney (stone), laxative, leprosy, leucorrhea, piles, pneumonia, psoriasis, purgative, rheumatism, fever and scabies) focused the investigator's attention on this plant. Over 100 studies using modern techniques have authenticated its use in diabetes and its complications (nephropathy, cataract, insulin resistance), as antibacterial as well as antiviral agent (including HIV infection), as anthelmintic and abortifacient. Traditionally it has also been used in treating peptic ulcers, interestingly in a recent experimental studies have exhibited its potential against Helicobacter pylori. Most importantly, the studies have shown its efficacy in various cancers (lymphoid leukemia, lymphoma, choriocarcinoma, melanoma, breast cancer, skin tumor, prostatic cancer, squamous carcinoma of tongue and larynx, human bladder carcinomas and Hodgkin's disease). There are few reports available on clinical use of MC in diabetes and cancer patients that have shown promising results.     

鹅不食草的药理与临床研究进展

分析鹅不食草近10年来的文献资料,对其药理与临床研究情况进行综述。鹅不食草在抗肿瘤、抗过敏、抗炎等方面药理研究有一些进展,在鼻咽癌、过敏性鼻炎、慢性鼻窦炎、结石治疗等方面有过大量的临床观察。但除了鹅不食草治疗过敏性鼻炎研究略为深入外,其余治疗方向药理研究不够;临床研究也多数限于临床报道。鹅不食草是治疗过敏性鼻炎、鼻炎癌的一种较有前途的药物,但有待进一步的发掘和研究。     

中医药逆转胰腺癌耐药性的研究进展

胰腺癌作为恶性程度极高的消化道肿瘤,化疗是临床治疗主要手段之一,但是由于肿瘤细胞多药耐药现象,使胰腺癌化疗疗效不够理想,而其机制尚未完全明确。为了解决这一难题,科学家们致力于研制出新型的治疗手段和解决耐药问题,随着科技的发展,越来越多的科技手段有望为治疗胰腺癌提供全新的治疗方法,而研制成功到运用于临床仍需要一定的时间,不能解决现阶段胰腺癌治疗难题,这就使得解决胰腺癌临床治疗耐药问题在现阶段十分必要。随着中国的国际影响力不断提高,中国传统文化也越来受到人类的关注,近年来,国家对中医文化的重视度和推动力也大大提高,中医药作为中国人同疾病斗争的宝贵遗产,治疗肿瘤历史悠久,毒副作用相对较小,苦痛少,不会给患者家庭带来过重的经济负担而更容易被患者接受。近年来已有文献报道,多味中医药抑制肿瘤细胞增殖具有显著作用,甚至能逆转肿瘤细胞耐药,临床研究也观察发现中医药对肿瘤的治疗呈现出较好的治疗效果。目前为止,文献对近几年来中药逆转胰腺癌耐药的总结性研究较少,不能体现出科学家在相关领域所作出的研究现状。本文对胰腺癌耐药蛋白异常表达等方面的耐药机制,与汉防己甲素、大黄素、虾青素、姜黄素等中医药逆转肿瘤耐药的研究进展进行综述。     

中医药外用治疗癌痛系统评价

目的:对中医药外用治疗癌性疼痛疗效进行系统评价。方法:以"中药""外治法""癌性疼痛"等为关键词,检索1/1991-10/2013年间Pubmed数据库、Cochrane图书馆、MEDLINE、EMBASE、CBM数据库、万方数据库、维普数据库、中国知网(CNKI)等中英文数据库的相关文献。筛选中医药外治癌痛的随机对照试验文献,按照Cochrane手册提供的系统评价措施对文献进行文献质量评估。结果:最终纳入9篇文献,均未进行恰当的分配隐藏且无随访报道;存在盲法不足、样本量小、具体中药处方报道不详、无中药质控措施、临床相关性不高等弊端,存在"高偏倚风险"。结论:中医药外用治疗疼痛临床研究循证医学证据不足,需加强严格设计、高质量的随机对照试验。     

基于文献报道中医古方治疗前列腺癌的用药分析

目的基于文献报道,回顾总结中医古方辨证治疗前列腺癌的临床应用情况,为进一步开展古方治疗前列腺癌现代临床应用及其药效学机制研究提供指导。方法通过中国全文期刊数据库(CNKI)、维普中文期刊服务平台、万方数据知识服务平台,将检索时间限定为自建库到2020年7月4日,查阅中医或中西医结合运用古方辨证治疗前列腺癌的相关文献并追溯综述类文章,将涉及的古方与对应证型的名称规范化并按功能分类整理方剂,运用SPSS26.0软件对不同古方治疗前列腺癌的使用频数进行分析,运用Cytoscape软件对古方-功能类别-证型的复杂网络进行可视化分析。结果从3大数据库中共检索到中医古方治疗前列腺癌相关不重复文献共2025篇,依据研究目的共纳入医家经验38篇,病例报道14篇。证型规范后有34种,湿热蕴结证最常见,频率为10.7%,其次是肝肾阴虚证和瘀血内阻证,频率皆为8.4%,气血两虚证频率为7.6%。共得到古方64种,功能类别以补益剂、祛湿剂和理血剂为主,单个古方使用频率由高到低依次为六味地黄丸8.3%、八正散7.7%、知柏地黄丸5.9%、肾气丸4.1%、四君子汤4.1%等。古方-功能类别-证型的网络分析亦证实这一结论,六味地黄丸在网络中的关联程度最高,方剂对应的证型多为肝肾阴虚证、瘀血内阻证、湿热蕴结证等。结论通过对中医古方治疗前列腺癌的临床经验的梳理和总结可为古方治疗前列腺癌现代临床应用提供参考和指导,但其药效学机制仍需深入探究。     

乌头类有毒中药配伍减毒增效的研究进展

总结近年来川乌、附子常用药对在临床应用、化学研究、药理毒理研究等方面所取得的进展,为临床安全有效应用乌头类中药提供理论依据.通过阅读大量近几年川乌、附子常用药对的文献报道,对其进行总结概述.川乌和附子通过合理配伍,可达到减毒增效的作用,扩大其应用范围.目前的川乌、附子配伍减毒研究已取得了一定进展,但研究还不够深入,需要进一步研究配伍减毒增效作用的机制,为临床应用提供科学依据.     

Herbal Medicines for Acute Kidney Injury: Evidence, Gapsand Frontiers

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a major health threat worldwide. The literature on herbal intervention in AKI was searched from English and Chinese databases and reports were critically analyzed in terms of preventing AKI, promoting repair and regeneration, enhancing extrarenal clearance of uremic toxins, and preventing progression to chronic kidney disease (CKD). Altogether, 16 herbal formulae and a few extracts derived from individual herbs were reported to prevent or mitigate AKI in animal models induced by renal ischemia/reperfusion, cisplastin, gentamicin, glycerol, adenine, sepsis or physical exhaustion. Four formulae and six individual herbs were reported to accelerate recovery and/ or to prevent CKD in established AKI animal models. Intrarectal herbal medicines, with or without simultaneous oral administration, were reported in six clinical trials and in an animal model to increase extrarenal clearance of uremic toxins. Additional 13 clinical trials reported oral or intravenous herbal interventions in AKI of different etiologies. Despite recurring problems, notably poor compliance with good practice guidelines for clinical trials and for authentication, naming and quality control of herbal materials, accumulating experimental data on the preventive effects of herbal medicines in AKI look encouraging and urge for better, definitive trials to guide clinical practice. Herbal enemas promoting extrarenal clearance of uremic toxins seem cost-effective, but better clinical evidence is certainly needed before any affirmative recommendation be made for AKI patients without access to dialysis. New frontiers, however, lie in those herbal remedies that promote repair/ regeneration and prevent chronicity after AKI. Recent experimental data suggest that this may be possible.     

Annual advances of integrative pharmacology in 2020

Major studies on the pharmacology of traditional herbs as well as active compounds have been introduced in this review over the previous 12 months. This annual integrative pharmacology review includes the reports published in 2020 on bioactive herbal extracts and novel compounds in traditional medicine. Pharmacological reports on traditional herbs as well as their active compounds for anticancer, inflammation, and metabolic diseases occupy dominant positions. Traditional medicines are still widely reported as a crucial treatment to exhibit anticancer efficacy in numerous human cancer cells. Moreover, the focus on the discovery of bioactive compounds from traditional medicines against mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases seems to increase. The reports on bone loss and organ fibrosis treatments have notably gradually increased. Furthermore, studies of traditional herbs on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases show a declining trend. These pharmacological reports in 2020 collectively show several crucial therapeutic targets and promising candidate compounds from traditional medicines for human diseases.     

中药炒焦物质基础及其质量评价研究思考与实践

中药炒焦后原有的有效或指标成分破坏或降低,但药理作用并不降低或有所增强,现有的有关物质基础的研究不能解释炒焦后药物的性味与功效等的变化。同时,对炒焦饮片的质量评价缺乏具有客观、专属性的评价指标,不能反映中药炒焦饮片的特点。因此如何打破炒焦研究的瓶颈,进一步创新、深入地研究中药炒焦物质基础,是业内学者面临的共同问题。笔者结合前期研究发现,提出通过对Maillard反应的研究来阐明炒焦物质基础及原理和建立适合炒焦饮片特点的专属质量评价指标的科学构想,并对此进行了相关研究。     

中药复方促进艾滋病免疫重建研究综述

该文综述了近20年来中药复方在促进艾滋病免疫重建方面的相关研究报道,发现中药复方对艾滋病免疫重建疗效确切.要充分发挥中药复方在提高机体免疫力方面的独特优势,从而改善患者症状,提高生存质量,实现艾滋病临床治疗的最优化.     

Co-administration of curcumin with other phytochemicals improves anticancer activity by regulating multiple molecular targets

Natural plant phytochemicals are effective against different types of diseases, including cancer. Curcumin, a powerful herbal polyphenol, exerts inhibitory effects on cancer cell proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis through interaction with different molecular targets. However, the clinical use of curcumin is limited due to poor solubility in water and metabolism in the liver and intestine. The synergistic effects of curcumin with some phytochemicals such as resveratrol, quercetin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, and piperine can improve its clinical efficacy in cancer treatment. The present review specifically focuses on anticancer mechanisms related to the co-administration of curcumin with other phytochemicals, including resveratrol, quercetin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, and piperine. According to the molecular evidence, the phytochemical combinations exert synergistic effects on suppressing cell proliferation, reducing cellular invasion, and inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. This review also emphasizes the significance of the co-delivery vehicles-based nanoparticles of such bioactive phytochemicals that could improve their bioavailability and reduce their systemic dose. Further high-quality studies are needed to firmly establish the clinical efficacy of the phytochemical combinations.     

Traditional medicine herbs as natural product matrices in cancer chemoprevention: A trans pharmacological perspective (scoping review)

Emerging evidence on molecular biology related to tumors, inflammation, and immunity, highlights their architectural commonality shifting cancer treatment paradigms toward more economical prevention than treatment. Statistical surveys reveal exponentially growing herbal drug supplementation in cancer worldwide as vast pre-clinical and clinical data unravel their multi-mechanistic pharmacology. The integrative oncological approach calls for more “holistic” principles to be amalgamated into cancer care. New cancer drug development from herbs need not be limited by the archetypal ‘RCT-Standardization’ bottlenecks. Based on comprehensive literature scoping as per Prisma-ScR guidelines, we herein concurrently reviewed evidence-based research reports of selected Indian Traditional Medicine (ITM) herbs of anticancer repute in parallel with their holistic therapeutics; a rationalistic exploration of ITM's scientific genre. Their synergy effect on cancer revisited using a trans-pharmacological approach validates ITM's seemingly simplistic health/disease equation model, showing a fresh new avenue for re-purposing whole herbal drug complexes in cancer management. Herbal drugs as per ITM are natural matrices whose dynamics of interaction in the etiopathology of cancer are conceptually and mechanistically integrative. Lateral perspective to the same as laid out in this review holds the key to their effectual development as more tangible cancer chemopreventives/new drug targets/leads if not as new pharmacological tools.     

Are there new therapeutic options for treating lung cancer based on herbal medicines and their metabolites?

ETHONOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Lung cancer is one of the most lethal cancers in terms of mortality and incidence worldwide. Despite intensive research and investigation, treatment of lung cancer is still unsatisfactory due to adverse effects and multidrug resistance. Recently, herbal drugs have been recognized as one of attractive approaches for lung cancer therapy with little side effects. Furthermore, there are evidences that various herbal medicines have proven to be useful and effective in sensitizing conventional agents, prolonging survival time, preventing side effects of chemotherapy, and improving quality of life (QoL) in lung cancer patients. AIM AND METHODS OF THE STUDY: Nevertheless, the underlying molecular targets and efficacy of herbal medicines in lung cancer treatment still remain unclear. Thus, we reviewed traditionally used herbal medicines and their phytochemicals with antitumor activity against lung cancer from peer-reviewed papers through Scientific Database Medline, Scopus and Google scholar. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that herbal medicines and phytochemicals can be useful anti-cancer agents for lung cancer treatment by targeting molecular signaling involved in the regulation of angiogenesis, metastasis and severe side effects, only provided quality control and reproducibility issues were solved.