Evidence of TCM Theory in Treating the Same Disease with Different Methods: Treatment of Pneumonia with Ephedra sinica and Scutellariae Radix as an Example.
Liping SunDandan WangYan XuWenxiu QiYanbo WangPublished in: Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM (2020)
Pneumonia is a serious global health problem and the leading cause of mortality in children. Antibiotics are the main treatment for bacterial pneumonia, but there are serious drug resistance problems. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to treat diseases for thousands of years and has a unique theory. This article takes the treatment of pneumonia with Ephedra sinica as a representative hot medicine and Scutellariae Radix as a representative cold medicine as an example. We explore and explain the theory of treating the same disease with different TCM treatments. Using transcriptomics and network pharmacology methods, GO, KEGG enrichment, and PPI network construction were carried out, demonstrating that Ephedra sinica plays a therapeutic role through the NF-κB and apoptosis signaling pathways targeting PLAU, CD40LG, BLC2L1, CASP7, and CXCL8. The targets of Scutellariae Radix through the IL-17 signaling pathway are MMP9, CXCL8, and MAPK14. Molecular docking technology was also used to verify the results. In short, our results provide evidence for the theory of treating the same disease with different treatments, and we also discuss future directions for traditional Chinese medicine.
Keyphrases
- signaling pathway
- molecular docking
- pi k akt
- global health
- oxidative stress
- epithelial mesenchymal transition
- mental health
- young adults
- cell proliferation
- induced apoptosis
- cell death
- combination therapy
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- cancer therapy
- respiratory failure
- nuclear factor
- cell cycle arrest
- network analysis
- smoking cessation
- mechanical ventilation
- protein protein