The American journal of Chinese medicine
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Migraine is a recurrent disease with complex pathogenesis and is difficult to cure. At present, commercially available western migraine drugs are prone to generate side effects while treating the disease. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) avoids side effects via treatment with the principles of "treating both symptoms and root causes", "overall adjustment", and "treatment based on syndrome differentiation". ⋯ These strategies not only treat the symptoms of diseases but also their root causes, and with the features of multiple targets, in multiple ways. Therefore, TCM prescriptions have obvious advantages in the treatment of chronic diseases such as migraine. In this review, we provided an overview of the pathogenesis of migraine and the function of representative TCM preparations in therapy of migraine as well as the mechanism of action according to effective researches, in order to provide reference and clue for further researches.
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Tamoxifen is one of the most common hormone therapy drug for estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. Tumor cells with drug resistance often cause recurrence and metastasis in cancer patients. Luteolin is a natural compound found from various types of vegetables and exhibit anticancer activity in different cancers. ⋯ Ras gene family (K-Ras, H-Ras, and N-Ras), an activator of PI3K, was transcriptionally repressed by luteolin via induction of tumor suppressor mixed-lineage leukemia 3 (MLL3) expression. MLL3 increases the level of monomethylation of Histone 3 Lysine 4 on the enhancer and promoter region of Ras genes, thus causes repression of Ras expressions. Our finding implies that luteolin was a promising natural agent against tamoxifen resistance of breast cancer.
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Inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress have been documented to contribute to the development of atherosclerosis. Ginsenoside Rb2 has been reported to exhibit antidiabetic effects. However, the effects of Rb2 on atherosclerotic responses such as inflammation and ER stress in endothelial cells and monocytes remain unclear. ⋯ Furthermore, GPR120 siRNA mitigated Rb2-induced AMPK phosphorylation. These results suggest that Rb2 inhibits LPS-mediated apoptosis and THP-1 cell adhesion to HUVECs by GPR120/AMPK/HO-1-associated attenuating inflammation and ER stress. Therefore, Rb2 can be used as a potential therapeutic molecule for treatment of atherosclerosis.
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Bauhinia championii (Benth.) is one of the commonly used herbs in Taiwan. The stem of this plant has been used to treat epigastria pain and rheumatoid arthritis. However, the antitumor activities of this herb have never been reported. ⋯ Furthermore, the inactivation of Ras signaling pathway by BC-EA also contributed to its apoptotic effect on HCT 116. Our study demonstrates that BC-EA not only inhibits cell growth but also induces apoptosis through inhibiting Ras signal pathway and increasing p53 expression levels. We suggest that BC-EA may be a new dietary supplement and a useful tool to search for therapeutic candidates against colon cancer.
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As current pain management methods cannot effectively control pain among cancer patients, acupuncture has developed as an adjuvant therapy for cancer pain relief. However, the efficacy of acupuncture in treating cancer pain remains controversial. Here, we briefly introduced the development of pain management, analgesic mechanisms, and acupuncture methods. ⋯ Interestingly, acupuncture can treat both tumor-induced pain and therapy-induced pain well among cancer patients. We preliminarily summarized frequently-used acupoints for different types of cancer pain and found that needle retention time was mostly 30 min, and treatment cycle was two weeks. Additionally, clinicians consistently selected Ashi acupoint or bilateral Zusanli acupoint and combined multiple acupuncture methods for different degrees of cancer pain.