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Background. Danlou tablet (DLT), the traditional Chinese medicine has been commonly used for dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, and coronary heart disease. Whether it was effective against vascular injury caused by CIH has remained unknown. The aim of the current study was to observe the effects of DLT on chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH)-induced vascular injury via regulation of blood lipids and to explore potential mechanisms. Methods. Sixteen 12-week-old male ApoE−/− mice were randomly divided into four groups. The sham group was exposed to normal room air, whereas the other three groups were exposed to CIH. Mice in the CIH + normal saline (NS) group were gavaged with NS. Mice in the CIH + Angptl4-ab group were intraperitoneally injected with Angptl4-antibody. Mice in the CIH + DLT group were gavaged with DLT. After four weeks of intervention, serum lipid concentrations, and serum lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity were detected. The changes in atherosclerosis in vascular tissue were detected by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analysis were applied to detect the expression levels of hypoxia-induciblefactor-1 (HIF-1), factor-inhibiting HIF-1 (FIH-1), angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4), and LPL in different tissues. Results. CIH exposure increases serum lipid levels, decreases serum LPL activity, and exacerbates atherosclerosis. Both Angptl4-ab and DLT treatment reversed the changes in lipid concentration, LPL activity, and atherosclerosis caused by CIH. In the epididymal fat pad, CIH exposure decreased the expression of FIH-1 and increased the expression of HIF-1, whereas DLT treatment increased the expression of FIH-1 and LPL and inhibited the expression of HIF-1 and Angptl4. In heart tissue, the expression levels of LPL and Angptl4 were not affected by modeling or treatment. Conclusions. DLT improved vascular damage by improving the increase in blood lipids induced by CIH, potentially by upregulating FIH-1 and downregulating HIF-1 and Angptl4 in adipose tissue. Therefore, DLT may be a promising agent for the prevention and treatment of CIH-induced vascular injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The traditional Chinese medicine classic herbal formula Longdanxiegan decoction (LDXGD) is widely used for hypertensive patients in China. Objectives: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of LDXGD for hypertension. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, andWanfang Database were searched up to February 7, 2017 for randomized control trials in treating hypertension. Results: Nine trials were identified. Compared with antihypertensive drugs, Longdanxiegan decoction plus antihypertensive drugs (LPAD) significantly improved systolic blood pressure (BP) (n = 138; MD = -4.82 mmHg; 95% CI: -7.89 to -1.76; P = 0.002), diastolic BP (n = 138; MD = -2.42 mmHg; 95% CI: -3.22 to -1.62; P < 0.00001), categorical BP (n = 509; RR: 1.26; 95% CI: 1.17 to 1.36; P < 0.00001), hypertension related symptoms (n = 509; RR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.49; P < 0.0001), and heart rate (n = 138; MD = -2.40 bpm; 95% CI: -4.23 to -0.56; P = 0.01). Beneficial effects but no statistically significant reduction in total cholesterol (n = 138; MD = -0.11 mmol/l; 95% CI: -0.65 to 0.44; P = 0.71), or triglyceride (n = 138; MD = -0.20 mmol/l; 95% CI: -0.46 to 0.07; P = 0.14) was observed in LPAD. Compared with antihypertensive drugs, LDXGD used alone significantly improved systolic BP, diastolic BP, and hypertension related symptoms. But there was no difference between LDXGD and antihypertensive drugs on categorical BP (n = 120; RR: 1.09; 95% CI: 0.96 to 1.23; P = 0.18). The safety of LDXGD were still unclear. Conclusions: Due to poor methodological quality of the included trials, as well as potential reporting bias, our review found no conclusive evidence for the effectiveness of LDXGD in treating hypertension. The potential beneficial effects and safety of LDXGD should be assessed in future properly designed trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method, quantitative analysis of multicomponents by single marker (QAMS), was established in this article to investigate the quality control of a traditional Chinese medicine, Oviductus Ranae. 7-Hydroxycholesterol, 7-ketocholesterol, 4-cholesten-3-one, stigmasterol, 7-dehydrocholesterol, and cholesterol were selected as the indexes of quality evaluation of Oviductus Rana. The determination was achieved on an Agilent HC-C18 column (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) using methanol with water (87 : 13 v/v) as mobile phase at the flow rate of 2.0 mL/min. Cholesterol was used as an internal standard to determine the relative correction factors between cholesterol and other steroidal constituents in Oviductus Ranae. The contents of those steroidal constituents were calculated at the same time. To evaluate the QAMS method, an external standard method was used to determine the contents of six steroidal constituents. No significant difference was observed when comparing the quantitative results of QAMS with the results of external standard method. The proposed QAMS method was proved to be accurate and feasible based on methodological experiments. QAMS provided a simple, efficient, economical, and accurate way to control the quality of Oviductus Ranae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To assess the effectiveness and adverse effects of adding Liuwei Dihuang Pills (LDP) to Western medicine for treating diabetic nephropathy. Methods. Studies were retrieved from seven electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), and Wanfang Data until November 2015. Study selection, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were conducted according to Cochrane standards. Meta-analysis was performed on the overall therapeutic efficacy of hyperglycemia and renal functions, and the study also analyzed adverse events. Results. A total of 1,275 patients from 18 studies were included. The methodological quality of these included trials was generally low. We found that adding LDP can lower patients’ FBG (MD: −0.36 [−0.46, −0.25], P<0.00001), PBG (MD: −1.10 [−1.35, −0.85], P<0.00001), and HbA1c (MD: −0.14 [−0.49, 0.21], P=0.43). There were also improvements in lowering patients’ BUN (MD: −0.67 [−0.89, −0.45], P<0.00001), SCr (MD: −0.96 [−1.53, −0.39], P<0.00001), 24 h UTP (SMD: −1.26 [−2.38, −0.15], P<0.00001), UAER (MD: −26.18 [−27.51, −24.85], P<0.00001), and UmAlb (SMD: −1.72 [−2.67, −0.77], P<0.00001). Conclusion. There is encouraging evidence that adding LDP to Western medicine might improve treatment outcomes of diabetic nephropathy, including hyperglycemia and renal functions. However, the evidence remains weak. More rigorous high-quality trials are warranted to substantiate or refute the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural products play an important role in drug discovery. This work employed a natural product 1-methylhydantoin as the lead compound to develop novel dual-active drugs. 1-Methylhydantoin was isolated from Oviductus Ranae, which is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for tussive and inflammation treatment for a long time. An in silico study screened the more active 1-methylhydantoin derivatives. Antitussive assessment indicated that the newly synthesized agent had similar bioactivity with the natural product. An anti-inflammatory model used xylene induced ear edema model. At the same dosage (100 mg/Kg), the newly prepared agent had an inhibition rate 53.18% which was much higher than that of the lead compound (22.69%). The results might be ascribed to the cyclooxygenases-1 (COX-1) and cyclooxygenases-2 (COX-2) selectivity, and the fitness of the compound, and the binding pocket. The anti-particulate matter (PM 2.5) acute pneumonia was evaluated through an in vivo model constructed by nasal instillation with PM 2.5 suspension. The results of the above models suggested that this novel agent had remarkable antitussive, anti-inflammatory, and anti-PM 2.5 acute pneumonia activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]