Multi-pathway cellular analysis on crude natural drugs/herbs from Japanese Kampo formulations

Shizuka Eshima, Satoru Yokoyama, Takashi Abe, Yoshihiro Hayakawa, Ikuo Saiki

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Kampo formulations comprise a number of crude natural drugs/herbs as constituents. The crude drugs/herbs have been traditionally classified by their traditional classifications or efficacies in Kampo medicines; however, it has been difficult to establish the scientific link between experimental evidence and traditional classifications in Kampo medicine. To clarify such traditional conceptions, we tested 112 crude drugs/herbs that are major components of Kampo formulations, in the multi-pathway analysis of 10 well-studied transcriptional activities including CREB, ERSF, HIF-1α, IRFs, MYC, NF-κB, p53, SMAD, SOX2, and TCF/LEF in A549 human lung cancer cells. By clustering the results of multi-pathway analysis with the Spearman rank-correlation coefficient and Ward linkage, three distinct traditional categories were significantly enriched in the major groupings, which are heat-clearing and dampness-drying herbs, acrid and warm exterior-resolving herbs, and acrid and cool exterior-resolving herbs. These results indicate that these crude drugs/herbs have similar effects on intracellular signaling and further imply that the traditional classifications of those enriched crude drugs/herbs can be supported by such experimental evidence. Collectively, our new in vitro multi-pathway analysis may be useful to clarify the mechanism of action ofcrude drugs/herbs and Kampo formulations.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0128872
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015/06/02

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • General

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