HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 233/9/1059    most recent 0802-MR-47v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Kang, Y. J. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kang, Y. J.

---

MINIREVIEW

Herbogenomics: From Traditional Chinese Medicine to Novel Therapeutics

Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky 40202

To whom requests for reprints should be addressed at ¹ Department of Medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine, 511 S. Floyd St., MDR 530, Louisville, KY 40202. E-mail: yjkang01{at}louisville.edu

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history of development and application and has demonstrated on evidence basis its efficacy in the treatment of many diseases affecting multiple organ systems. In particular, TCM is effective in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases and metabolic syndromes. However, the value of TCM has not been fully recognized worldwide due to the lack of definitive information of active ingredients in almost any TCM preparation. Novel functional genomics and proteomics approaches provide alternate perspectives on the mechanism of action of TCM. The target molecules on which TCM either activates or inactivates can be identified by functional genomics and proteomics, thus the affected critical signaling pathway cascades leading to effective recovery of chronic diseases can be studied. Several TCM preparations have been available for the treatment of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, even advanced liver cirrhosis that has been shown to be irreversible and has no US-FDA approved therapy. In the TCM-treated livers with fibrosis and cirrhosis, some critical molecules that are significantly involved in the recovery can be identified through functional genomics and proteomics studies. These molecules become novel targets for drug discovery and development and candidates for the development of gene therapy. Gene therapy developed based on this strategy for the treatment of advanced liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in animal models has obtained promising results. This process thus establishes a herbogenomics approach to understand mechanisms of action of TCM and to identify effective molecular targets for the discovery and development of novel therapeutics.

Key Words: TCM • gene therapy • personalized medicine • proteomics, genomics • liver fibrosis • cirrhosis