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Objective: To examine the effects of the combination of quercetin (Q), cinnamaldehyde (C) and hirudin (H), a Chinese medicine formula on high glucose (HG)-induced apoptosis of cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Methods: DRG neurons exposed to HG (45 mmol/L) for 24 h were employed as an in vitro model of diabetic neuropathy. Cell viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level and apoptosis were determined. The expression of nuclear factor of Kappa B (NF-κB), inhibitory kappa Bα(IκBα), phosphorylated IκBα and Nf-E2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) were examined using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot assay. The expression of hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and caspase-3 were also examined by RT-PCR and Western blot assay. Results: HG treatment markedly increased DRG neuron apoptosis via increasing intracellular ROS level and activating the NF-κB signaling pathway ( P<0.05). Co-treatment with Q, C, H and their combination decreased HG-induced caspase-3 activation and apoptosis ( P<0.05 or P<0.01). The expressions of NF-κB, IL-6 and TNF-α were down-regulated, and Nrf2/HO-1 expression was up-regulated ( P<0.05 or P<0.01). QCH has better effect in scavenging ROS, activating Nrf-2/HO-1, and down-regulating the NF-κB pathway than other treatment group. Conclusions: DRG neurons' apoptosis was increased in diabetic conditions, which was reduced by QCH formula treatment. The possible reason could be activating Nrf-2/HO-1 pathway, scavenging ROS, and inhibition of NF-κB activation. The effect of QCH combination was better than each monomer or the combination of the two monomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral oxymatrine preparation for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on oral oxymatrine preparation in treating patients with CHB were retrieved until October 2013 by searching PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase and four Chinese databases, irrespective of language and publication status. Data extraction and data analyses were conducted according to the Cochrane standards. The risk of bias for each included trials and the quality of evidence on pre-specified outcomes were assessed. The RevMan software was used for statistical analyses. Results: Totally 52 RCTs enrolling 5,227 participants were included, of which 51 RCTs were included in meta-analyses. Oral oxymatrine preparation including oxymatrine capsule and oxymatrine tablet were associated with statistically significant effect on the clearance of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, HBV surface antigen and HBV e antigen, and were beneficial to the normalization of serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. Nevertheless, the overall methodological quality and the quality of evidence in the included trials were poor. In addition, safety of oral oxymatrine preparation was not confirmed. Conclusions: Oral oxymatrine preparation showed some potential benefits for patients with CHB. However, the overall quality of evidence was limited and the safety of oral oxymatrine preparation for CHB patients was still unproven. More high quality evidence from rigorously designed RCTs is warranted to support the clinical use of oral oxymatrine preparation for patients with CHB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a novel analytical technology, metabolomics is widely used in the modern research of Chinese medicine (CM). Metabolomics adopts a 'top-down' strategy to reflect the function of organisms from terminal symptoms of metabolic network and understand metabolic changes of a complete system caused by interventions. As a holistic approach, metabolomics technology, including nuclear magnetic resonance, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, favorable to express the meaning of basic theories of CM, CM syndrome and Chinese herb. Therefore, we believe that metabolomics technology will greatly benefit to development for the research of CM in the light of modern sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of Quyu Xiaoban Capsule (..., QYXB) on the regressive treatment of atherosclerosis (AS) with acoustic densitometry (AD) technique. Methods: Eighty patients with AS were randomly divided into two groups, trial group was treated with QYXB and conventional medicine, and control group was treated with conventional medicine alone. Normal arterial wall and different types of atherosclerotic plaques were detected with AD technique before treatment and 10 months later. Results: The corrected averages in intimal echo intensity (AIIc%) were elevated in both groups but without significant difference, AIIc% of fatty plaques were increased in both groups and the value after treatment was significantly higher than that of pre-treatment in the trial group (68.12±5.54 vs 61.43±5.37, P<0.05). The increment rate of Allc% in trial group was significantly higher than that in control group (10.9±5.1% vs 2.5±5.5 %, P<0.05). Conclusion: QYXB can stabilize the atherosclerotic plaque by increasing its acoustic density. Acoustic densitometry technique can differentiate the different histological plaques and monitor the histological changes of plaques during treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]