Cerebrospinal Fluid Pharmacology: An Improved Pharmacology Approach for Chinese Herbal Medicine Research

Abstract

Despite many successful applications of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in the treatment and prevention of neurological diseases (ND), the fully scientific understanding of CHM's action mechanisms had been hampered for lack of appropriate methods to explore the combinatorial rules, the synergistic mechanisms, and the molecular basis of CHM. As an improved pharmacology approach, cerebrospinal fluid pharmacology (CSFP), based on the fact that cerebrospinal fluid plays an important role in the health maintenance of specific survival environment for neurons and glial cells, has been constructed and applied to CHM research for treating ND. In the present review, the concept and advantages of CSFP are briefly introduced. The approaches and key technologies of CSFP in CHM research are also collated and analyzed. Furthermore, the developing tendency of CSFP is summarized, and its framework in CHM research is also proposed. In summary, CSFP provides a new strategy not only to eliminate some barriers of CHM research for treating ND, but also to broaden the pharmacology research for bridging the gap between CHM and modern medicine. Moreover, the advancements in CSFP will bring about a conceptual move in active ingredients discovery of CHM and make a significant contribution to CHM modernization and globalization.

An overview of pharmacodynamic modelling, ligand-binding approach and its application in clinical practice

“…In the future, network-based systems pharmacology models could be an effective way of understanding drug-related adverse effects ( Berger and Iyengar, 2011 ). The advantages of network-based systems pharmacology models comprise the following: increase in drug efficacy, regulation of the signalling pathway with multiple channels, increase in drug efficacy, increase in the success rate of clinical trials, and decrease in the costs of drug discovery ( Wu et al, 2013 ). Network pharmacology models make two main approaches in the drug development process.…”

Naoxintong Protects Primary Neurons from Oxygen‐Glucose Deprivation/Reoxygenation Induced Injury through PI3K‐Akt Signaling Pathway

“…Cerebrospinal fluid containing NXT (BNC) was used in this study instead of drug-containing serum, intestinal absorption liquid, and extraction solution. Cerebrospinal fluid pharmacology is an emerging and improved pharmacological method which using cerebrospinal fluid was extracted from animals after administration of traditional Chinese medicines to explore the material basis and the efficacy mechanisms for treating neural cells including neuron and glial cells in vitro [ 14 , 15 ].…”

“…Cerebrospinal fluid containing NXT (BNC) was collected as described previously [ 14 , 15 ]. All animal experimental procedures were in compliance with the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.…”

The exciting and magical journey of components from Compound formulae to where they fight

“…This cerebrospinal fluid pharmacology approach effectively employs the idea of collecting cerebrospinal fluid containing CMM compounds from animals and subsequently utilizing CMM-enriched cerebrospinal fluid on in vitro central nervous disorder assays. This approach helps investigate the efficacy and exact mechanisms of action mediated by CMM formulae for central nervous disorders [140] .…”