Chinese herbal medicine research in eczema treatment

Eczema is a chronic relapsing atopic dermatitis (AD) associated with pruritus, sleep disturbance and poor quality of life of the patient. Treatment of eczema includes use of emollient, topical and systemic antimicrobial agents, corticosteroid or immunomodulating agents. Many patients also seek alternative treatments such as dietary avoidance, supplementation or both. This article reviews the basic pathophysiology of eczema and clinical trials involving Chinese medicine in the treatment of eczema. Research reports on Chinese herbal medicine for eczema were retrieved from PubMed and the Cochrane Database for Systematic Reviews for this review. Only a few RCTs demonstrated the efficacy (or lack of efficacy) of Chinese medicinal herbs in treating atopic eczema. Further larger scale trials are warranted

Epigenetic Inactivation of the miR-124-1 in Haematological Malignancies

miR-124-1 is a tumour suppressor microRNA (miR). Epigenetic deregulation of miRs is implicated in carcinogenesis. Promoter DNA methylation and histone modification of miR-124-1 was studied in 5 normal marrow controls, 4 lymphoma, 8 multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines, 230 diagnostic primary samples of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), MM, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), and 53 MM samples at stable disease or relapse. Promoter of miR-124-1 was unmethylated in normal controls but homozygously methylated in 4 of 4 lymphoma and 4 of 8 myeloma cell lines. Treatment of 5-Aza-2′-deoxycytidine led to miR-124-1 demethylation and re-expression of mature miR-124, which also associated with emergence of euchromatic trimethyl H3K4 and consequent downregulation of CDK6 in myeloma cells harboring homozygous miR-124-1 methylation. In primary samples at diagnosis, miR-124-1 methylation was absent in CML but detected in 2% each of MM at diagnosis and relapse/progression, 5% ALL, 15% AML, 14% CLL and 58.1% of NHL (p<0.001). Amongst lymphoid malignancies, miR-124-1 was preferentially methylated in NHL than MM, CLL or ALL. In primary lymphoma samples, miR-124-1 was preferentially hypermethylated in B- or NK/T-cell lymphomas and associated with reduced miR-124 expression. In conclusion, miR-124-1 was hypermethylated in a tumour-specific manner, with a heterochromatic histone configuration. Hypomethylation led to partial restoration of euchromatic histone code and miR re-expression. Infrequent miR-124-1 methylation detected in diagnostic and relapse MM samples showed an unimportant role in MM pathogenesis, despite frequent methylation found in cell lines. Amongst haematological cancers, miR-124-1 was more frequently hypermethylated in NHL, and hence warrants further study

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population.

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (Pinteraction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction  = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Immunological Defence beyond Vaccination- A Review

The Pandemic has been with us in the whole world for over half a year. There seems no signs of slowing down. Traditionally, infection problems are dealt with by experts and scholars who clarify the cause of the disease and the pathological involvements; work out the effective treatment protocol, then organize a public health program for prevention. Unfortunately, with regard to this current devastating pandemic, up to today there is yet no consensus on the use of therapy: anti-flu, anti HIV, antimalarials and steroidal classics have all been tried. New drugs, of course, has been on the list.&nbsp;</p

A Commentary: The pandemic is calling for effective personal protection through innate immunological boosting

It is logical to rely on effective vaccinations to overcome the pandemic as well as future up-coming epidemics. When the scale of involvement and the speed of spread are unusually wide and extensive, as is happening in the current Pandemic, vaccination cannot effectively satisfy the expectations.Innate Immunity of the individual determines whether he or she is more resistant to infection, or on the contrary, more susceptible. A strong background of innate immunological defense ability allows the individual to resist infection and, even if infected will be able to maintain a mild course.Recent studies have indicated that Innate Immunity could be “trained” to arrive at a more effective and more sustained ability to resist incoming adverse organisms: though short of specificity like vaccination, yet could provide a general combatting coverage, from the stage of early organism entry to the subsequent fight for elimination. Research has identified that micro-nutrients in food stuffs and special lipo- or glyco-proteins could provide enhancements in the perfect maintenance of the Immunological System to provide an ideal ground for “trained immunity” development.Since Vitamin D has long been revealed being protective against respiratory infections via rather sophisticated pathways, it is suggested that it could be combined with other micro nutrients like β glycan to form an effective Innate Immunity booster in support of specific vaccination.</p

Enhancing Antibiotics Efficacy by Combination of Kuraridin and Epicatechin Gallate with Antimicrobials against Methicillin-Resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen and a major cause of nosocomial and community-acquired infections. The alarming rise in Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infection worldwide and the emergence of vancomycin-resistant MRSA strains have created an urgent need to identify new and alternative treatment options. Triple combinations of antimicrobials with different antimicrobial mechanisms may be a good choice to overcome antimicrobial resistance. Methods: In this study, we combine two natural compounds: kuraridin from Sophora flavescens and epicatechin gallate (ECG) from Camellia sinensis (Green tea), which could provide the best synergy with antibiotics against a selected panel of laboratory MRSA with known resistant mechanisms and clinical community-associated (CA) and hospital-associated (HA) MRSA as well. Results: The combined use of ECG and kuraridin was efficacious in inhibiting the growth of a panel of tested MRSA strains. The antibacterial activities of gentamicin, fusidic acid and vancomycin could be further enhanced by the addition of ECG and kuraridin. In time-kill study, when vancomycin (0.5 μg/mL) was combined with ECG (2 μg/mL) and kuraridin (2 μg/mL), a very strong bactericidal growth inhibition against 3 tested strains ATCC25923, MRSA ST30 and ST239 was observed from 2 to 24 h. ECG and kuraridin both possess anti-inflammatory activities in bacterial toxin-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells by suppressing the production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNFα) and are non-cytotoxic. In a murine pneumonia model infected with ATCC25923, MRSA ST30 or ST239, the combined use of ECG and kuraridin with vancomycin could significantly reduce bacterial counts. Conclusions: The present findings reveal the potential of ECG and kuraridin combination as a non-toxic herbal and antibiotics combination for MRSA treatment with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities