Mechanism Study of Traditional Medicine Using Proteomics Alone or Integrated with Other Systems Biology Technologies

The efficacy of traditional medicine such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) had been confirmed by many years of clinical use. However, the mechanisms of traditional medicine remained obscure. Since the development of systems biology in 2000, systems biology technologies have been popularly used in the mechanism study of traditional medicine. In this special issue, we particularly picked reviews and research papers related to mechanism study of TCM, TCM diagnosis, or TCM therapy methods using proteomics as well as other systems biology technologies. There are 10 papers collected in this special issue, in which 3 papers are reviews and 7 papers are original research papers. The 3 reviews in the present issue introduce the advancements in applications of proteomics technologies in the study of TCM and the achievements in the mechanism study of TCM. Q. Ji et al. summarized the applications of proteomics technologies in TCM syndrome research as well as the mech-anistic study of TCM treatments, including Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese herbal formula, and acupuncture. Furthermore , they introduced the combined analyses of pro-teomics with other "-omics " technologies in the study of TCM. Y. A. Sulistio and K. Heese discussed the utility of comparative proteomics for a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in TCM activities and its potential application as complementary therapy for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Additionally, they reviewed the data from comparative proteomics studies of AD patients and established the relevance of the data with available AD hypotheses and potential TCM-based treatments, most notably regarding the ubiquitin proteasome system. Y. Yang et al. focused on discussing various results of proteomics studies of mechanisms of anticancer TCM, including ter-penes, flavonoids, and glycosides. And they suggested future research strategies such as integrating translating mRNA analysis with proteomics in the study of the mechanisms of anticancer TCM. Four of the research papers reported results of mechanism studies of TCM. J.-Y. Shiau et al. studied the mechanism of 2-í