Strategy of systems biology for visualizing the “Black box” of traditional Chinese medicine
- 1 January 2020
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Medknow in World Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Vol. 6 (3), 260-270
- https://doi.org/10.4103/wjtcm.wjtcm_31_20
Abstract
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been practiced for thousands of years in China. TCM formula, usually composed of several or even dozens of herbal medicines, is the main form of TCM practicing, which is extremely complex due to multiple components and therapeutic targets, especially the characteristics of formula compatibility. Thus, it is an enormous challenge for the modernization of TCM. Systems biology is a strategy for investigating the complex interactions between genes, mRNA, proteins, and metabolites by using integrated omics approaches. In recent years, systems biology has been increasingly adopted in TCM study. This review comprehensively summarized status of syndrome and application of TCM formulae in clinical and preclinical studies and discussed the advances of systems biology in TCM research. Then, a “Disease-Syndrome-Formulae-Effect” strategy was proposed for TCM research. Combination of systems biology and “Disease-Syndrome-Formulae-Effect” strategy provided a novel approach to understand the complex interactions among biological systems, drugs, and complex diseases from a network perspective, thus facilitating the modernization of TCM. The objective of this manuscript is to provide comprehensive and up-to-date review on the application of systems biology in TCM research, as well as the perspective of TCM modernization with systems biology.Keywords
This publication has 122 references indexed in Scilit:
- Huang-Lian-Jie-Du-Decotion induced protective autophagy against the injury of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion via MAPK-mTOR signaling pathwayJournal of Ethnopharmacology, 2013
- A Systems Biology Approach to Characterize Biomarkers for Blood Stasis Syndrome of Unstable Angina Patients by Integrating MicroRNA and Messenger RNA Expression ProfilingEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013
- Progression from Excessive to Deficient Syndromes in Chronic Hepatitis B: A Dynamical Network Analysis of miRNA Array DataEvidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013
- HIT: linking herbal active ingredients to targetsNucleic Acids Research, 2010
- Reactome: a database of reactions, pathways and biological processesNucleic Acids Research, 2010
- Human Protein Reference Database--2009 updateNucleic Acids Research, 2008
- Database of traditional Chinese medicine and its application to studies of mechanism and to prescription validationBritish Journal of Pharmacology, 2006
- The model organism as a system: integrating 'omics' data setsNature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2006
- The Database of Interacting Proteins: 2004 updateNucleic Acids Research, 2004
- Here is the evidence, now what is the hypothesis? The complementary roles of inductive and hypothesis‐driven science in the post‐genomic eraBioEssays, 2003