Study On Effective Substances In Shenmai Formula

As the wisdom of Chinese culture, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is derived from long-term medicinal practice in China. One of the most important problems in the modernization of TCM is how to discover and develop new botanical drug with high safety and efficacy. Therefore, the use of modern scientific and technological research to clarify the material basis of its efficacy, compatibility, and mechanisms, the modern scientific connotation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, are crucial to accelerate the modernization and internationalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In this study, Shenmai formula, one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese medicines is employed as a specific object of study. A series of techniques were established to identify active components, design optimal combination of multiple components, and investigate the molecular mechanisms of action. We found out the effective components and optimal combination of active components from Shenmai and improved the compatibility of science from mechanisms. Main research contents include:1. A component-knockout approach was established to discover active components from Traditional Chinese Medicine. The method was applied to discover the active components of Shenmai Formula for the synergistic effects on the Cyclophosphamide chemotherapy for S180 tumor-bearing mice. The results indicated that panoxadiol, a type of ginsenosides, were the effective components of Shenmai Formula and the compatibility of panaxadiol, panaxatriol and ophiopogonpolysaccharide is the effective compatibility of Shenmai.2. The optimal combination of three active components from Shenmai formula was studied by a simplex lattice design and a multiple linear regression. The Male Sprague-Dawley rats were used to perform myocardial infarction by occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The major active components in Shenmai are panaxadiol (PD) and panaxatriol (PT) type saponins from Red Ginseng and ophioponins (OP) from Radix Ophiopogonis. The infraction rat of heart and serum malondialdehyde (MDA) level in acute ischemia rat were used to evaluate the therapeutic effect of each component or component mixture. The simplex lattice design was adopted to optimize the combination of three components with variant proportion from Shenmai. A multiple linear regression algorithm was used to generate mathematic model for representing relationship between the composition and the measured characteristic. The results indicated that the combination of PD, PT, and OP (1:2:2) will produce good efficacy in both infarct size and MDA level.3. The study aimed to evaluate the possible anti-ischemic effects of mechanisms for the optimal combination. The results showed that the symptoms of myocardial ischemia can be improved after administration of the optimal combination. It had the effects to protect the ischemic rats which related to the scavenging of oxygen free radicals, the promotion of NO secretion and the induction of angiogenesis by collaborative effect of VEGF, bFGF and PDGF-B.In summary, the current study found out the major effective substances in Shenmai formula towards anti-tumor and cardioprotective effects.