Application of Metabolomics in Traditional Chinese Medicine Differentiation of Deficiency and Excess Syndromes in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Metabolic profiling is widely used as a probe in diagnosing diseases. In this study, the metabolic profiling of urinary carbohydrates was investigated using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and multivariate statistical analysis. The kernel-based orthogonal projections to latent structures (K-OPLS) model were established and validated to distinguish between subjects with and without diabetes mellitus (DM). The model was combined with subwindow permutation analysis (SPA) in order to extract novel biomarker information. Furthermore, the K-OPLS model visually represented the alterations in urinary carbohydrate profiles of excess and deficiency syndromes in patients with diabetes. The combination of GC/MS and K-OPLS/SPA analysis allowed the urinary carbohydrate metabolic characterization of DM patients with different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes, including biomarkers different from non-DM patients. The method presented in this study might be a complement or an alternative to TCM syndrome research

Exploratory Factor Analysis for Validating Traditional Chinese Syndrome Patterns of Chronic Atrophic Gastritis

Background. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has long been used to treat chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the TCM syndrome characteristics of CAG and its core pathogenesis so as to promote optimization of treatment strategies. Methods. This study was based on a participant survey conducted in 4 hospitals in China. Patients diagnosed with CAG were recruited by simple random sampling. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on syndrome extraction. Results. Common factors extracted were assigned to six syndrome patterns: qi deficiency, qi stagnation, blood stasis, phlegm turbidity, heat, and yang deficiency. Distribution frequency of all syndrome patterns showed that qi deficiency, qi stagnation, blood stasis, phlegm turbidity, and heat excess were higher (76.7%–84.2%) compared with yang deficiency (42.5%). Distribution of main syndrome patterns showed that frequencies of qi deficiency, qi stagnation, phlegm turbidity, heat, and yang deficiency were higher (15.8%–20.8%) compared with blood stasis (8.3%). Conclusions. The core pathogenesis of CAG is combination of qi deficiency, qi stagnation, blood stasis, phlegm turbidity, heat, and yang deficiency. Therefore, treatment strategy of herbal prescriptions for CAG should include herbs that regulate qi, activate blood, resolve turbidity, clear heat, remove toxin, and warm yang

Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis “ Yang-Xu Zheng

Pathogenesis of sepsis includes complex interaction between pathogen activities and host response, manifesting highly variable signs and symptoms, possibly delaying diagnosis and timely life-saving interventions. This study applies traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Zheng diagnosis in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock to evaluate its adaptability and use as an early predictor of sepsis mortality. Three-year prospective observational study enrolled 126 septic patients. TCM Zheng diagnosis, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, and blood samples for host response cytokines measurement (tumor necrosis factor-α, Interleukin-6, Interleukin-8, Interleukin-10, Interleukin-18) were collected within 24 hours after admission to Intensive Care Unit. Main outcome was 28-day mortality; multivariate logistic regression analysis served to determine predictive variables of the sepsis mortality. APACHE II score, frequency of Nutrient-phase heat, and Qi-Xu and Yang-Xu Zhengs were significantly higher in nonsurvivors. The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified Yang-Xu Zheng as the outcome predictor. APACHE II score and levels of five host response cytokines between patients with and without Yang-Xu Zheng revealed significant differences. Furthermore, cool extremities and weak pulse, both diagnostic signs of Yang-Xu Zheng, were also proven independent predictors of sepsis mortality. TCM diagnosis “Yang-Xu Zheng” may provide a new mortality predictor for septic patients

ZHENG-Omics Application in ZHENG Classification and Treatment: Chinese Personalized Medicine

With the hope to provide an effective approach for personalized diagnosis and treatment clinically, traditional chinese medicine (TCM) is being paid increasing attention as a complementary and alternative medicine. It performs treatment based on ZHENG (TCM syndrome) classification, which could be identified clinical special phenotypes by symptoms and signs of patients even if they have a different disease. However, it caused controversy because ZHENG classification only depends on observation, knowledge, and clinical experience of TCM practitioners, which lacks objectivity and repeatability. Although researchers and scientists of TCM have done some work with a lot of beneficial methods, the results could not reach satisfactory with the shortcomings of generalizing the entire state of the body or ignoring the patients' feelings. By total summary, mining, and integration of existing researches, the present paper attempts to introduce a novel macro-microconcept of ZHENG-omics, with the prospect of bright future in providing an objective and repeatable approach for Chinese personalized medicine in an effective way. In this paper, we give the brief introduction and preliminary validation, and discuss strategies and system-oriented technologies for achieving this goal

Faculty Of Education UNHI

Faculty Of Education UNH

The evolutional development of traditional chinese medicine (TCM) outside the chinese mainland: Challenges, training, practice, research, and future development

This overview has provided an account of evolutional changes of an experience-based traditional medical practice of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) towards modernisation to keep up with recent advances in analytical and biomedical sciences, and information technology, which may help readers to understand why applying biomedical research methodology to TCM modernisation, while maintaining the experience-based concepts, principles and heritage of TCM's personalised health and medical approaches in balancing body's functions with physical and mental harmony when facing environmental changes, can contribute to gain global appreciation and acceptance of TCM in healthcare. It is envisaged that such future development and integration with biomedicine-based main-stream medicine (MSM) in practice will provide valuable medical care in the development of future personalised health and medicine as well as TCM product development

Genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation topology to understand cell fate

DNA methylation is an epignetic modification associated with gene regulation. It has extensively been studied in the context of small regulatory regions. Yet, not so much is known about large domains characterized by fuzzy methylation patterns, termed Partially Methylated Domains (PMDs). The present thesis comprises PMD analyses in various contexts and provides several new aspects to study DNA methylation. First, a comprehensive analysis of PMDs across a large cohort of WGBS samples was performed, to identify structural and functional features associated with PMDs. A newly developed approach, ChromH3M, was proposed for the analysis and integration of a large spectrum of WGBS data sets. Second, PMDs were found to be indicators of the cellular proliferation history and segmented loss of DNA methylation in PMDs supports the sequential linear differentiation model of memory T-cells. Third, assessment of genome-wide methylation changes in PMDs of Multiple Sclerosis-discordant monozygotic co-twins did not show significant differences, but local changes (DMRs) were identified. Taken together, the outcomes of the presented studies shed light on a so far neglected aspect of DNA methylation, that is PMDs, in different contexts; lineage specialization, differentiation, replication, disease, chromatin organization and gene expression.Die DNA-Methylierung ist eine epigenetische Modi1kation, die funktionell mit der Genregulation verbunden ist. Sie wurde bereits ausführlich im Kontext kleiner regulatorischer Regionen untersucht. Es ist jedoch noch nicht sehr viel bekannt über große Domänen, welche erstmals in WGBS-Daten beschrieben wurden. Sie werden als partiell methylierte Regionen (PMDs) bezeichnet und sind durch das Vorhandensein variabler Methylierungsmuster charakterisiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit umfasst PMD-Analysen in unterschiedlichen Kontexten und liefert verschiedene neue Aspekte zur Untersuchung der DNA-Methylierung. Zuerst wurde eine umfassende Analyse von PMDs in einer großen Kohorte von WGBS-Proben durchgeführt, um strukturelle und funktionelle Merkmale zu identi 1zieren, die mit PMDs assoziert sind. Ein neu entwickelter Ansatz, ChromH3M, wurde für die Analyse und Integration einer großen Kohorte vonWGBS Datensätzen angewandt. Zweitens wurde festgestellt, dass PMDs Indikatoren für die Zellproliferationshistorie sind, und der zu beobachtende graduelle Verlust der globalen DNAMethylierung bei der Differenzierung von T-Gedächtniszellen unterstützt die Hypothese der sequenziellen linearen Differenzierung. Drittens zeigte die Bewertung der genomweiten Methylierungsänderungen in PMDs von Multiple Sklerose-diskordanten monozygoten Zwillingen keine signi1kanten Unterschiede, jedoch wurden lokale Änderungen (DMRs) identi1ziert. Insgesamt geben die Ergebnisse der vorgestellten Studien Aufschluss über einen bislang eher vernachlässigten Aspekt der DNA-Methylierung, d.h. PMDs, in verschiedenen Zusammenhängen: der Festlegung der Zell-entwicklungsbahnen, der Zelldifferenzierung, der Replikation, die Krankheit, der Organisation des Chromatins, sowie der Regulation der Genexpression