Objective: There are different geographic origins of Aconiti Kusnezoffii Radixs (AKRs) sold in the market with different quality. This study aims to establish a rapid analysis method to distinguish the different geographic origins of AKRs and to realize the rapid evaluation of their quality. Methods: An ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF MS) method was utilized to acquire the constituents' information of AKRs from different geographic origins. MS E data and Progenesis QI software were employed to identify the chemical constitutes. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to comparing MS data to find the chemical markers of AKRs from different geographic origins. Results: Twenty-three components were detected and 17 out of them were identified, including diester-diterpenoid alkaloids, monoester-diterpenoid alkaloids , and amine-diterpenoid alkaloids. Three pairs of isomers were detected and two of them were distinguished by the retention time of standard samples. Thirteen chemical markers were screened out through PCA and orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis. Through detecting Napelline or isomer of Napelline (m/z 360.2530) and Aconifine (m/z 662.3170), AKRs from inner Mongolia autonomous could be screened. According to the existence of benzoylaconine (m/z 604.3108) and Indaconitine (m/z 630.3159), it could be confirmed that the AKRs are from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous. AKRs that cannot detect compounds above-mentioned could be from Liaoning or Shanxi Province. Conclusions: The chemical profile could be used not only to distinguish the AKRs from different geographic origins but also to identify the true and false of AKRs. This study lays a foundation for the study of efficacy and toxic of AKRs.

Objective: Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) are efficacious against ulcerative colitis (UC). In recent years, the number of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of TCM has increased. Thus, it is very important to summarize the basic characteristics, quality, and types of TCM interventions in published RCTs. This scoping review was performed to systematically identify and describe the current situations about RCTs of TCMs for treating UC. Hope to express the focus and specifics of nowadays research in TCM interventions in RCTs and evaluate their common disadvantages exposed to help advance in TCM researching. Materials and Methods: A scoping review was conducted according to the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. We searched two English databases and four Chinese databases from the date of establishment of each database to January 2020. Data from RCTs focusing on any TCM treatment for patients with UC were extracted and evaluated. Selection and characterization were performed by two independent reviewers using predefined forms. All discrepancies were resolved by consensus discussion with a third reviewer. Microsoft Excel 2010 was used to extract the following data from the included studies: (1) basic information of the included studies including research ID, article title, publication language, journal, year of publication, and funding information; (2) patient information including gender, age, disease course, disease stage, severity, sample size; and (3) information on intervention measures, types of intervention measures, drug dosage forms, and treatment courses. Results: The search identified 2225 RCTs published between 1987 and 2020. These studies covered 36 provinces in China. The time frame of the RCTs was <28 days in approximately one-third of the RCTs (647, 29.08%). Only one RCT was published in English. Nearly three-quarters of RCTs (1665, 74.83%) did not report the severity of the disease. Three types of interventions were included in the RCTs: pharmacotherapy (2028, 91.15%), nonpharmacotherapy (57, 2.56%), and a combination of the two (140, 6.29%). The administration modes of the intervention groups were evaluated. Drug therapy involved 12 types of TCM dosage forms, which were decoctions, troches, powders, capsules, granules, pills, suppositories, ointments, injections, gels, oral liquids, and substitute tea according to the frequency of use. Nondrug intervention measures involved 10 treatment options, namely, acupuncture, moxibustion, hemospasia, auricular point, acupoint catgut embedding, acupoint injection, scrapping, tuina, acupoint application, and five-tone therapy according to the frequency of use. Most studies included in this review were low in quality. This underscores the need for improvement in the quality of trial methodology in TCM RCTs.

Objective: To conduct a literature review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the use of acupuncture for hot flashes to analyze the characteristics of each study, draw a conclusion on the advantages and disadvantages of previous studies and provide the suggestions for future studies on the same topic. Methods: We searched English and Chinese databases for the literature published from 2009 to 2019 restricted in the English and Chinese language, and we included RCT using acupuncture as the main observational intervention for hot flashes by the criteria. Results: Twenty studies met our eligibility criteria. All the studies were of high quality and confirmed the clinical efficacy of acupuncture for hot flashes, although they used different controlled interventions. The acupuncture treatment and theory of acupoints selection were relatively consistent among the studies, and they had close trial designs. Conclusions: These RCTs on acupuncture were nonuniform, which made the studies on this topic lack coherence, leading to unsatisfactory research outcomes. Therefore, more professional research teams are needed to perform studies on a definite topic and draw a specific conclusion to previous studies before the next step is taken.

Background: Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu decoction (HQGZWW) exhibits good effects when administered to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Understanding the precise mechanism of this decoction is thus important. Based on the findings of our previous study, the aim of the present study was to understand the role of antigen-specific CD8 + T-cells on the pathogenesis of MS/EAE when HQGZWW is administered as treatment. Methods: Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) 35-55 -induced mice were administered distilled water, prednisone, and high dose or low dose HQGZWW. After purified CD4 + and CD8 + T-cells were stimulated with the MOG 35-55 peptide, proliferation and cytokine secretion assays were performed. To establish the adoptive transfer EAE model, naïve mice were injected with MOG 35-55 -CD8 + or CD4 + T-cells. Results: Significant improvements in EAE score and pathology were observed in the high dose HQGZWW and prednisone groups. Compared to the low dose HQGZWW and distilled water groups, lower antigen-specific responses, lower levels of interferon-gamma, and higher levels of interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-10 from CD8 + and CD4 + T cells were observed in the high dose HQGZWW and prednisone groups. Finally, the EAE score was observed to be similar between the high dose HQGZWW group and prednisone group; however, this finding was not observed in the low dose HQGZWW group. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that high dose HQGZWW has similar effects on cell proliferation, cytokine secretion, and EAE score to prednisone, while low dose HQGZWW does not have such effect. The protective role of HQGZWW against EAE might thus depend on the Th2 cytokine secretion profile induced by either MOG 35-55 specific CD8 + or CD4 + T-cells.

Background: The 11 th revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) was released on June 18, 2018, by the World Health Organization and will come into effect on January 1, 2022. Apart from the chapters on the classification of diseases in the conventional medicine (CM), a new chapter, traditional medicine (TM) conditions – Module 1, was added. Low back pain (LBP) is one of the common reasons for the physician visits. The classification codes for LBP in the ICD-11 are vital to documenting accurate clinical diagnoses. Methods: The qualitative case study method was adopted. The secondary use data for 100 patients were randomly selected using the ICD-11 online interface to find the classification codes for both the CM section and the TM Conditions – Module 1 (TM1) section for LBP diagnosis. Results: Of the 27 codes obtained from the CM section, six codes were not relevant to LBP, whereas the other 21 codes represented diagnoses of LBP and its related diseases or syndromes. In the TM1 section, six codes for different patterns and disorders represented the diagnoses for LBP from the TM perspective. Conclusion: This study indicates that specific diagnoses of LBP can be represented by the combination of CM classification codes and TM1 classification codes in the ICD-11; the CM codes represent specific and accurate clinical diagnoses for LBP, whereas the TM1 codes add more accuracy to the diagnoses of different patterns from the TM perspective.

Objective: The objective of the study was to explore the research status and hot topics that are most studied about in Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) analgesia through a metrical and visualization analysis of the literature and provide some references for the experimental research on the analgesic effect of TCC and its clinical applications. Methods: The literature on TCC analgesia was collected from the Web of Science database, and the metrical and visualization analysis was performed using the CiteSpace. 5.6.R4 software in terms of publication outputs, countries, institutions, keywords, highly cited articles, and highly cited journals. Results: The number of annual publications gradually increased over time. The five research groups presented stable cooperative relationships and more publications. The authors ranked as top 1 were from America rather than China, which has more publications. The most common keywords were Tai Chi, randomized controlled trial, older adults, exercise, pain, low back pain, quality of life, management, etc. The literature on knee osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia had the highest citation frequency. The journals with high citation frequency included Cochrane Database System Review, Pain, and Plos One. Conclusions: Increasing attention has been paid to TCC analgesia. Randomized controlled trials, older adults, low back pain, and quality of life were found to be most studied in this field. Investigating clinical efficacy and conducting meta-analyses could be a promising direction in the future. The international cooperation and literature quality of TCC analgesia should be further strengthened.