1,721,060 research outputs found
Irritant contact dermatitis due to a Chinese herbal medicine Lu-Shen-Wan
No full textA Chinese herbal medicine Lu-Shen-Wan, which contains 6 ingredients, is sometimes applied topically to treat boils, carbuncles and other skin infections. 2 elderly women developed a rash after applying Lu-Shen-Wan. Patch tests showed positive reactions to Lu-Shen-Wan and to one of its 6 ingredients, Venenum Bufonis. A study in 15 control patients showed that 13 had positive reactions to 50% Lu-Shen-Wan and 50% Venenum Bufonis but that only 2 showed mild reactions when the concentration of the latter was reduced to 5%. The results suggest that Veneneum Bufonis in Lu-Shen-Wan can cause irritant contact dermatitis. The present paper demonstrates that a Western dermatological investigative method, the patch test, is applicable to traditional medicine in confirming the cause of contact dermatitis from a Chinese herbal preparation and in identifying the causative ingredient. Such knowledge is very useful for the improvement of the preparation by reducing the concentration of the irritant, by removing it or by substituting it with an alternative non-irritant substance.link_to_subscribed_fulltex
The depletion of gut microbiome impairs the beneficial effect of Gui-Shen-Wan in restoring mice ovarian function and associated protein expression of ovarian tissues
Get PDFIntroductionTraditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), specifically Gui-Shen-Wan, has shown promise in restoring ovarian function among reproductive-age women who had impaired ovarian functions, yet the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Recent studies highlight the pivotal role of the gut microbiome (GM) in mediating the therapeutic effects of TCM. However, it is unclear whether the GM contributes to Gui-Shen-Wan’s therapeutic restoration of ovarian functions.MethodsThis study employed a mouse model with cyclophosphamide-induced decreased ovarian function (P_T and P_AT groups) and a control group without modeling. The P_AT group received a 7-day course of oral antibiotics to deplete the GM prior to a 20-day Gui-Shen-Wan treatment regimen.ResultsBoth P_T and P_AT mice exhibited prolonged metestrus/diestrus phases compared to controls (p<0.05), indicating menstrual disruption post-modeling. Following 20 days of Gui-Shen-Wan treatment, P_T mice showed a shorter metestrus/diestrus phase (4 days) compared to P_AT mice (5 days) (p<0.05). Notably, P_T mice had a higher number of normal follicles(primitive/primary/secondary/antral follicles) in their ovaries post-treatment (median 15) compared to P_AT mice (median 8.5). Proteome analysis revealed that ovarian proteins enriched in P_T mice were primarily associated with oxidative phosphorylation and DNA replication pathways, suggesting GM-mediated enhancement of these processes.DiscussionThis study underscores the pivotal role of the GM in the therapeutic benefits of Gui-Shen-Wan, highlighting the potential for microbiome-targeted interventions in promoting beneficial effects of Gui-Shen-Wan on the restoration of decreased ovarian functions
The depletion of gut microbiome impairs the beneficial effect of Gui-Shen-Wan in restoring mice ovarian function and associated protein expression of ovarian tissues
No full textIntroduction: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), specifically Gui-Shen-Wan, has shown promise in restoring ovarian function among reproductive-age women who had impaired ovarian functions, yet the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Recent studies highlight the pivotal role of the gut microbiome (GM) in mediating the therapeutic effects of TCM. However, it is unclear whether the GM contributes to Gui-Shen-Wan’s therapeutic restoration of ovarian functions. Methods: This study employed a mouse model with cyclophosphamide-induced decreased ovarian function (P_T and P_AT groups) and a control group without modeling. The P_AT group received a 7-day course of oral antibiotics to deplete the GM prior to a 20-day Gui-Shen-Wan treatment regimen. Results: Both P_T and P_AT mice exhibited prolonged metestrus/diestrus phases compared to controls (p<0.05), indicating menstrual disruption post-modeling. Following 20 days of Gui-Shen-Wan treatment, P_T mice showed a shorter metestrus/diestrus phase (4 days) compared to P_AT mice (5 days) (p<0.05). Notably, P_T mice had a higher number of normal follicles(primitive/primary/secondary/antral follicles) in their ovaries post-treatment (median 15) compared to P_AT mice (median 8.5). Proteome analysis revealed that ovarian proteins enriched in P_T mice were primarily associated with oxidative phosphorylation and DNA replication pathways, suggesting GM-mediated enhancement of these processes. Discussion: This study underscores the pivotal role of the GM in the therapeutic benefits of Gui-Shen-Wan, highlighting the potential for microbiome-targeted interventions in promoting beneficial effects of Gui-Shen-Wan on the restoration of decreased ovarian functions. Copyright © 2024 Huang, Xu, Yang, Jiang, Lin, Zhao, Wu, Du and Dai
Liu-Shen-Wan inhibits PI3K/Akt and TRPV1 signaling alleviating bone cancer pain in rats
No full textPatients with advanced-stage cancers often suffer from severe pain caused by bone metastasis and destruction, for which effective treatment options are limited. Liu-Shen-Wan (LSW) is a widely recognized herbal formula utilized for pain relief. This study aims to elucidate the effects of LSW on bone cancer pain (BCP). In this study, the pharmacology of LSW on BCP was screened by network pharmacology. A BCP model was conducted using Walker 256 cells. Paw withdrawal threshold and paw withdrawal latency were employed as measures to assess the pain threshold in rats. The pathways and cell types of LSW against BCP were explored. Next, the impact of LSW on Walker 256 cells was evaluated, and UPLC-MS was utilized to identify the active ingredients of LSW. Furthermore, the effects of the key active ingredient, Bufalin, on the BCP rats were evaluated. There were 275 shared targets between LSW and BCP, which were enriched in neural tissue ligand-receptor interaction pathway. LSW increased pain threshold and decreased inflammatory cytokines levels in BCP rats by inhibiting PI3K/Akt and transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) signaling through astrocytes and microglia. LY294002 further alleviated BCP in rats, while the effects were reversed after treatment with insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Both LSW and its active ingredient Bufalin were shown to inhibit the viability and migration of Walker 256 cells and induce apoptosis. Bufalin appears to be the key active ingredient of LSW and exerts its pain-relieving effects by suppressing PI3K/Akt and TRPV1 signaling in BCP
Simultaneous Determination of Bufadienolides in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Preparation, Liu-Shen-Wan, by Liquid Chromatography
No full textAbstract
The bufadienolide compounds (bufalin, cinobufagin and resibufogenin), major constituents of Chansu in Liu-Shen-Wan (LSW), were determined by reverse phase high performance liquid chromotography. The procedure involves a preliminary extraction of the bufadienolides from LSW with chloroform using ultrasonication and subsequent evaporation to dryness of the chloroform extract. The residue of the chloroform extract was dissolved in methanol and separated on a Merck LiChrosorb RP-18 column. Methanol: water (74:26) was used as mobile phase. The compounds were satisfactorily separated with good chromatographic peaks. Good coefficients of correlation (r &gt; 0·999) were obtained from the calibration of peak areas with concentrations for the 3 bufadienolides. Results of analysis showed that there were differences between the contents of bufadienolides in 11 LSW samples of different origin available to the public in Hong Kong where at present there is no legal control over the sale of traditional Chinese medicines. The variability of quantities of bufadienolides in Chansu may be a hazard to the public.</jats:p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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