Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a touchy clinical and public health problem worldwide, which adversely affects women’s health and health-related comorbidities for lifetime, and represents a tremendous burden for both the family of the patient and for society. According to the diagnostic criteria used and the population studied, the prevalence rate of PCOS is between 6% and 21%. However, current conventional modern medicines for PCOS are only moderately effective at controlling the signs and symptoms, while they are not thoroughly able to prevent complications. Therefore, many patients have turned to complementary and alternative medical (CAM) treatments. CAM use is wide spread among patients with PCOS, and more than 70% of patients use CAM at one point during their diseases. The patients’ primary motivations include dissatisfaction with available medications, perceive higher risk of drug side effects and crushing health burden and economic costs, desire for symptom relief, pursuit of shortening the course of disease, and the belief that CAM therapy is in accordance with the patients’ values and beliefs. At present, several CAM methods have been used in women with PCOS, which has achieved obvious effects. However, biologically plausible mechanisms of the action of traditional Chinese medicine- (TCM-) associated CAM for PCOS have not been systematically reviewed. This review briefly summarizes the current progress of the impact of herbal medicine on the outcomes of PCOS and introduces the mechanisms.
Natural products (NP) are an important source of bioactive compounds. Considering their complex matrix effects, the development of suitable methodologies for the quick identification and analysis of active substances in NPs played a significant role in controlling their quality and discovering new drugs. In recent years, the technology of immobilized biomembrane has attracted increasing attention, due to its advantages such as multitarget efficiency, accuracy, and/or time‐saving compared with traditional activity‐guided separation and ligand fishing methods. This article provides a systematic review of the latest advances in screening technologies based on biomembrane in the field of NPs. It includes detailed discussions on these technologies, including cell membrane chromatography, artificial membrane chromatography, cell membrane fishing, living cell fishing methods, and their applications in screening various active molecules from NPs. Their limitations and future development prospects are further discussed.
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