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 WP9 will organise and host a final conference to reflect on and disseminate the findings of the consortium as well as integrate best practice across research activity, measurement use and analysis. The European Society of TCM Research will be founded during this meeting so that the heritages and tasks of this consortium can be carried on to ensure a sustainable development of TCM research in the …more Acupuncture is an important part of TCM and is receiving increasing acceptance in western medicine for treating certain medical conditions. However, most of the efficacy was built on observation of changes of subjective “syndromes”. Is it possible to use functional genomics methodology in cells, animal models and in patients to improve our understanding of the nature of acupoints and meridians to better interpret the efficacy of this traditional therapy? So far there are no answers yet to these important questions. WP8 will discuss these topics in …more Promising herbal medicine candidates eventually need to be tested in vivo. In WP5, the pharmacology of CHM in animal models and will be discussed. Furthermore, another potential application of functional genomics in TCM is to use it to interpret the therapeutic values of the herbal medicines objectively. All these will significantly promote the understanding of TCM. Drugs have to be first tested in animal models before moving on to clinical trials. The assessment of the safety and efficacy of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHMs) is an important issue for consumers, practitioners and health care professionals. The research protocols, standards and methods for the evaluation of the safety and efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM), including CHMs, are however more complex than those for conventional medicines. Indeed, TCM present a unique set of pharmaceutical theories that include particular methods for processing, combining and decocting CHMs, which probably contribute to reduce their eventual toxicities and enhance their efficacies. The evaluation of CHMs safety is complicated by multiple factors, such as the geographical origin of plant material, different processing techniques, dosage, route of administration and compatibility with other …more Once we have obtained CHM with a guaranteed quality, we may have to extract and purify them for functional genomics studies. This step is indispensable to functional genomics techniques such as in vitro DNA finger-typing, microarray, activity assay, HPLC analysis and purification. If herbal drugs are to be given to animals or patients, of course, most commonly extracts but not crude herbs are used. As there are a lot of extraction and purification protocols that might lead to fundamental changes of components and function of extracts, it is crucial to inform European scientists to observe a good practice for herbal extraction and purification, which will be discussed in WP2, to maximise the opportunities for success in studies of CHM. Within this process we will need to be aware of the complex and multidimensional aspects of CHM and create protocols that do not simply identify one active …more Before discussing the application of functional genomics to address the nature, efficacy and mechanisms of TCM, including CHM and acupuncture-moxibustion, in WP1, the consortium will discuss good practice in CHM quality control. This is because proper quality control is not only in the interests of patients, but also essential for producing reliable research data convincing to peer reviewers and acceptable by the scientific community. Importantly, a functional genomics approach, including various combinations of activity assays, genomics, proteomics and metabolomics methods, has been shown to be advantageous in quality control of complicated systems such as crude herbal mixtures, single herbs or other herbal products, which may contain thousands of big and small molecules, each subject to variation in an individualised and unpredictable manner and therefore affect clinical efficacy and safety, as well as the reproducibility of …more In WP6, the pharmacology of CHM in patients will be discussed. In patients, diagnoses using the TCM system and Western Medicine are very different. Is it possible to interpret the individualised TCM diagnosis of “Zhenghou” (“syndromes”) with the same or similar diseases in Western medicine through different patterns of functional genomics in the blood, urine and mucous secretions? If this is the case we will not only find a scientific explanation for TCM diagnosis but also find a potential way to make the TCM diagnosis more …more  The 2nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the GP-TCM, GP-TCM Coordinator’s tour in China to mark the final year of the Coordination …more  The 2nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the GP-TCM consortium took place in Braga on 21st – 24th July 2011. The meeting gathered more than 50 beneficiary as well as …more  the UK Traditional Herbal Registration scheme, Exploration of PHY906 …more |
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Monday, 15th of August 2011 at 09:02:18 AM