Network pharmacological analysis on the active ingredients of Yigan Powder in treating Alzheimer's disease with depressive disorder

Objective:To study the potential therapeutic effect of Yigan Powder on Alzheimer’s disease(AD)comorbid Depressive Disorder with Network Pharmacology.Methods:The active ingredients of Yigan Powder were screened from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology database and analysis platform(TCMSP)by ADME parameters,targets are predicted by Swiss Target Prediction database,disease targets are downloaded from GeneCards,OMIM and PharGKB database.Using R to run GO terms enrichment and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis.Protein interaction data is downloaded from the String database.Cytoscape software is used to build network.AutoDock Vina and PyMOL software are used for molecular docking.Results:There are 125 active ingredients in Yigan Powder with 953 predicted targets,85 of predicted targets are related to Alzheimer's Disease comorbid Depressive Disorder,shows highly enriched signaling pathways and biological processes.PPI network shows APP,MAPK1 and STAT3 may be important potential treatment of Alzheimer's Disease comorbid Depressive Disorder.The results of AutoDock Vina docking showed that the active ingredients of Yigan Powder had good binding activity with important receptors.Conclusion:Yigan Powder shows effect on neurotransmitter metabolism,synaptic transmission,neuroinflammation and other aspects in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease comorbid Depressive Disorder.

Efficacy and safety of Buyanghuanwu decoction combined with regular western medicine treatment for ischemic stroke convalescence: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Buyanghuanwu (BYHW) decoction for the treatment of ischemic stroke convalescence. Methods: CNKI, Wanfang knowledge service platform, VIP journal database, Chinese biomedical literature database (CBM), Pubmed, the Cochrane Library, Science Citation Index (SCI) and Elsevier SD databases were searched from the origin time to May 2018. Cochrane recommended bias risk assessment method was used to evaluate the bias risk. Review Manager 5.3 was used to perform meta-analysis. Results: A total of 12 studies with a 1246 cases were included in the study. The results of the analysis showed that the efficacy of BYHW decoction combined with western medicine treatment was better than that of control group (OR = 2.88, 95% CI (2.10,3.95), P < 0.001)]. The neurological deficit score in the treatment group was lower than that in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant [MD =-2.84, 95% CI (-3.22,-2.45), P < 0.001]. The scores of daily living ability in the treatment group were higher than those in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant [MD = 8.89, 95% CI (7.61, 10.16), P <0.00001]. In the safety aspect, the results of the study are different, and there was a lack of quantitative indicators to evaluate the objectivity of adverse reactions. Conclusion: BYHW decoction combined with the Western medicine is an effective treatment for the recovery period of cerebral infarction, which can significantly improve the clinical efficacy, improve patients' neurological symptoms and their quality of life.

Identification and classification of traditional Chinese medicine syndrome types among senior patients with vascular mild cognitive impairment using latent tree analysis

OBJECTIVE： To treat patients with vascular mild cognitive impairment （VMCI） using traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）, it is necessary to classify the patients into TCM syndrome types and to apply different treatments to different types. In this paper, we investigate how to properly carry out the classification for patients with VMCI aged 50 or above using a novel data-driven method known as latent tree analysis （LTA）. METHOD： A cross-sectional survey on VMCI was carried out in several regions in Northern China between February 2008 and February 2012 which resulted in a data set that involves 803 patients and 93 symptoms. LTA was performed on the data to reveal symptom co-occurrence patterns, and the patients were partitioned into clusters in multiple ways based on the patterns. The patient clusters were matched up with syndrome types, and population statistics of the clusters are used to quantify the syndrome types and to establish classification rules. RESULTS： Eight syndrome types are identified： Qi deficiency, Qi stagnation, Blood deficiency, Blood stasis, Phlegm-dampness, Fire-heat, Yang deficiency, and Yin deficiency. The prevalence and symptom occurrence characteristics of each syndrome type are determined. Quantitative classification rules are established for determining whether a patient belongs to each of the syndrome types. CONCLUSION： A solution for the TCM syndrome classification problem for patients with VMCI and aged 50 or above is established based on the LTA of unlabeled symptom survey data. The results can be used as a reference in clinic practice to improve the quality of syndrome differentiation and to reduce diagnosis variances across physicians. They can also be used for patient selection in research projects aimed at finding biomarkers for the syndrome types and in randomized control trials aimed at determining the efficacy of TCM treatments of VMCI.