Diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP) is one of the most common and complex complications of diabetes. In recent years, studies have shown that gut microbiota can regulate inflammatory response, intestinal permeability, glucose metabolism, and fatty acid oxidation, synthesis, and energy consumption by regulating factors such as lipopolysaccharides, short chain fatty acids, bile acids, and branched chain amino acids, achieving the goal of treating DNP. This paper summarizes the relevant mechanisms of gut microbiota in the treatment of DNP, the relevant intervention measures of traditional Chinese and western medicine, in order to provide new ideas for clinical treatment of DNP.
This paper introduces the application and funding of evidence-based research projects on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in 2019 in terms of clinical research and methodology research, summarizes the primary problems existing in evidence-based research on TCM, discusses the quality of evidence-based research on TCM in clinical research, highlights the characteristics of TCM and reveals the evidence-based methodology on TCM.
Objective?To investigate the relationship between syndromes of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at stable phase. MethodsBased on diagnostic criterion of TCM, five groups of symptoms of TCM about stable COPD were established including lung Qi deficiency, lung and spleen Qi deficiency, lung and kidney Qi deficiency, lung Spleen Kidney Qi deficiency, and deficiency of both Qi and Yin. A total of 300 cases which were up to the standard were differentiated into 5 groups by the symptoms. Some basic details and lung function of the patients were recorded, and then statistical analysis was performed to analyze the differences of lung function among groups. ResultsForced expiratory volume in the first second in descending order was lung Qi deficiency group, lung and spleen Qi deficiency group, lung and kidney Qi deficiency group, and lung spleen kidney Qi deficiency group (P<0.05). ConclusionThese findings suggest that with the progressing of COPD, the symptom type of TCM for COPD patients at stable phase may vary from lung Qi deficiency to lung and spleen Qi deficiency, or to lung and kidney Qi deficiency, and even lung, spleen and kidney Qi deficiency. Lung function tests help reveal substance and pathogenesis of TCM syndromes of patients with stable COPD, and provide evidence for the clinical syndrome.
The therapeutic efficacy of Danshen and Jiangxiang in the treatment of ischemic stroke (IS) is relatively significant. Studying the mechanism of action of Danshen and Jiangxiang in the treatment of IS can effectively identify candidate traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) with efficacy. However, it is challenging to analyze the effector substances and explain the mechanism of action of Danshen-Jiangxiang from a systematic perspective using traditional pharmacological approaches. In this study, a systematic study was conducted based on the drug-target-symptom-disease association network using complex network theory. On the basis of the association information about Danshen, Jiangxiang and IS, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and the “drug pair-pharmacodynamic ingredient-target-IS” network were constructed. The different topological features of the networks were analyzed to identify the core pharmacodynamic ingredients including formononetin in Jiangxiang, cryptotanshinone and tanshinone IIA in Danshen as well as core target proteins such as prostaglandin G/H synthase 2, retinoic acid receptor RXR-alpha, sodium channel protein type 5 subunit alpha, prostaglandin G/H synthase 1 and beta-2 adrenergic receptor. Further, a method for screening IS candidates based on TCM symptoms was proposed to identify key TCM symptoms and syndromes using the “drug pair-TCM symptom-syndrome-IS” network. The results showed that three TCMs, namely Puhuang, Sanleng and Zelan, might be potential therapeutic candidates for IS, which provided a theoretical reference for the development of drugs for the treatment of IS.
Precision medicine is a personalized medical system based on patients' individual biological information, clinical symptoms and signs, forming a new clinical research model and medical practice path. The basic idea of traditional Chinese medicine and the concept of precision medicine share many similarities. The basket trial developed for precision medicine is also suitable for clinical trials and evaluation of the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation and treatment systems. Basket trials are used to evaluate the efficacy of a drug in the treatment of multiple diseases or disease subtypes. It has the advantages of sharing a master protocol, unifying management of subsidiary studies, simplifying the test implementation process, unifying statistical analysis, saving resources, reducing budgets and accelerating the drug evaluation progress. This is similar to the concept of using the "same treatment for different diseases" found in traditional Chinese medicine. This paper introduced the concept and method of basket trials and explored their application and advantages in clinical research into traditional Chinese medicine. This study is expected to provide references for the methodological innovation of clinical research into traditional Chinese medicine.
ObjectiveTo construct a prediction model of diabetics distal symmetric polyneuropathy (DSPN) based on neural network algorithm and the characteristic data of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. MethodsFrom the inpatients with diabetes in the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine from 2017 to 2022, 4 071 cases with complete data were selected. The early warning model of DSPN was established by using neural network, and 49 indicators including general epidemiological data, laboratory examination, signs and symptoms of traditional Chinese medicine were included to analyze the potential risk factors of DSPN, and the weight values of variable features were sorted. Validation was performed using ten-fold crossover, and the model was measured by accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and AUC value. ResultsThe mean duration of diabetes in the DSPN group was about 4 years longer than that in the non-DSPN group (P<0.001). Compared with non-DSPN patients, DSPN patients had a significantly higher proportion of Chinese medicine symptoms and signs such as numbness of limb, limb pain, dizziness and palpitations, fatigue, thirst with desire to drink, dry mouth and throat, blurred vision, frequent urination, slow reaction, dull complexion, purple tongue, thready pulse and hesitant pulse (P<0.001). In this study, the DSPN neural network prediction model was established by integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine feature data. The AUC of the model was 0.945 3, the accuracy was 87.68%, the sensitivity was 73.9%, the specificity was 92.7%, the positive predictive value was 78.7%, and the negative predictive value was 90.72%. ConclusionThe fusion of Chinese and Western medicine characteristic data has great clinical value for early diagnosis, and the established model has high accuracy and diagnostic efficacy, which can provide practical tools for DSPN screening and diagnosis in diabetic population.
ObjectiveTo explore the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) acupuncture analgesia after laparoscopic total extraperitoneal inguinal hernia repair (TEP), aiming to reduce the use of analgesics post-surgery. MethodsPatients who underwent unilateral TEP in the Department of Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery at our hospital from May 2022 to May 2023 were selected as research subjects. Those who met the inclusion and exclusion criterias were randomly assigned to three groups: TCM acupuncture analgesia group, traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture analgesia plus western medicine analgesia group (referred to as Chinese and western medicine analgesia group), and western medicine analgesia group. The basic information, postoperative numerical rating scale (NRS) pain scores, postoperative recovery indicators, and complication rates of the three groups were analyzed and compared.ResultsThere was no statistically significant differences in the basic data of patients across the three groups (P>0.05). There were significant differences in NRS score, recovery time of intestinal function, first urination time after operation and first ambulation time after operation at each time point after analgesia (6 h, the next morning, 48 h, 72 h and 96 h after operation) among the three groups (P<0.05). The NRS scores in both the TCM acupuncture analgesia group and the Chinese and western medicine analgesia group were lower than those in the western medicine analgesia group (P<0.05), Additionally, postoperative recovery outcomes were better in the TCM acupuncture analgesia group and the Chinese and western medicine analgesia group compared with the western medicine group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference of the above results compared between the TCM acupuncture analgesia group and the Chinese and western medicine analgesia group (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in postoperative complications among the three groups (P>0.05). ConclusionTCM acupuncture analgesia following TEP surgery is effective and leads to improved postoperative recovery compared with the use of oral analgesics alone, without an increase in adverse reactions.
Evidence-based medicine advocates to support clinical decision-making with the best evidence, which is useful to objectively evaluate the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine and optimize clinical diagnosis and treatment. However, significant individualized characteristics identified from syndrome differentiation and treatment are incompatible with evidence-based clinical decision-making, which highlights population-level evidence, to some extent. In recent years, a number of new methods and technologies have been introduced into individualized clinical efficacy evaluation research of traditional Chinese medicine to assist managing and processing complex and multivariate information. These methods and technologies share similarities with evidence-based medicine, and are expected to link the clinical practice of traditional Chinese medicine with evidence-based clinical decision-making. They will guide the development of evidence-based clinical decision-making in traditional Chinese medicine.
Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common clinical emergency of the abdomen with increasing incidence and lack of effective treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine, as a treasure of the Chinese people, has been used in the treatment of AP for decades with favorable therapeutic effects. Currently, clinical trials and experimental studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine has the effects of inhibiting pancreatic enzyme activity, anti-inflammation, promoting gastrointestinal dynamics, as well as delaying the progress of AP, improving clinical symptoms, reducing related complications, and reducing the mortality rate. Therefore, traditional Chinese medicine has considerable clinic value in treating AP. Based on the related research progress and clinical practice of our team, the authors summarized the targets and mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine in treating AP.
Objective To discuss the rules of using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjögren syndrome (SS). Methods The TCM prescriptions for patients with SLE or SS treated at the Department of Rheumatology of Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine between January 2013 and July 2021 were collected. The prescriptions collected were broken down and analyzed for frequencies of the efficacies, properties, flavors and meridian tropisms of drugs in the prescriptions. The correlation and clustering analysis was performed in VOSviewer software. Results The medication information of 3689 cases of inpatients was included, from which 69167 pieces of data of using TCM prescriptions were extracted. The top 20 high-frequency drugs for treating SLE patients were mainly drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, qi-tonifying drugs, and drugs for heat clearing and detoxicating, which were mostly sweet, bitter or acrid in flavor, cold, warm or neutral in properties, and of the spleen, liver or stomach meridian. The drugs could be seperated into 3 clusters, the blue cluster mainly included qi-tonifying drugs, blood-tonifying drugs, and drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis; the green cluster mainly included drugs for heat clearing and drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis; and the red cluster mainly consisted of drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, drugs for inducing diuresis and alleviating edema, drugs for dispelling wind-heat, and digestant drugs. The top 20 high-frequency drugs for treating SS patients were mainly drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, qi-tonifying drugs, and drugs for inducing diuresis and alleviating edema, which were mostly sweet, bitter or acrid in flavor, slightly cold, cold or warm in properties, and of the spleen, stomach or liver meridian. The drugs could be seperated into 2 clusters, the green cluster mainly consisted of yin-tonifying drugs, drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and drugs for heat clearing; the red cluster mainly included qi-tonifying drugs, drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and drugs for inducing diuresis and alleviating edema. Conclusions The medication for SLE is in line with the treatment principle of “supplementing qi and nourishing yin, detoxicating and removing stasis”; the medication for SS, on the other hand, agrees with the basic rule of “nourishing yin and clearing away heat, promoting body fluid to moisten dryness”. Both are based on the approach of strengthening the body resistance, which is in line with the diagnostic and treatment ideas of rheumatology department and may offer the ideas of TCM syndrome differentiation for clinical use of drugs and thereby guiding the current clinical practice.