中医药的代谢组学研究

中医药历经几千年发展,有其独特的科学内涵,而传统概念表达的中医药理论难以被现代社会理解和接受。在继承和发扬中医药优势特色的基础上,充分利用现代科学技术解读中医药内涵成为亟待解决的任务。中医药的精髓在于其丰富的理论体系,即以整体的、动态的和辨证的观点去把握人体的健康与疾病。它凝聚着历史的智慧,却缺乏现代科学阐释。伴随代谢组学的出现,与中医药的整体观、系统观和辨证论治思维方式不谋而合,与中医药认识和解释疾病的方法相一致。若有效地契合代谢组学研究方法策略,基于系统代谢网络的整体性和动态性的变化来评价中医药整体效应,发掘特征性规律,将加快传统中医药与现代生命科学技术的结合,为中医药的发展提供新的机遇,从而推动中医药现代化。

Metabolomics Study of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to prevent disease for thousands of years. However,the actual value of TCM has not been recognized adequately due to the lack of scientific approaches to its study.Fortunately, metabolomics becomes practically available and consists with the holistic thinking of TCM. The metabolomics can serve as a new strategy for evaluating the efficacy of TCM. This review summarized applications of metabolomics in special TCM field with an emphasis on biomarker discovery.