BACKGROUND Chromatin, residing in the nuclei of eukaryotic cells, comprises DNA and histones to make up chromosomes. Chromatin condenses to compact the chromosomes and loosens to facilitate gene transcription and DNA replication/repair. Chemical modifications to the histones mediate changes in chromatin structure. Histone-modifying enzymes are potential drug targets. How herbs affect phenotypes...

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the most common complementary and alternative medicines used in the treatment of patients with cancer worldwide. However, the clinical effect of TCM on patients with pancreatic cancer remains unclear. This study was aimed to explore the efficacy of TCM on selected patients with pancreatic cancer and to study the usefulness of multimodality treatment,...

This report describes the fermentation, isolation, and structural elucidation of tetracenomycin (Tcm) F2 [2], a metabolite produced by a blocked mutant strain WMH1092 of the Tcm C [1] producer Streptomyces glaucescens and by the recombinant strain S. glaucescens WMH1077 (pWHM722). Elucidation of the Tcm F2 structure shows that 2 is the earliest intermediate identified to date in the biosynthesi...

This phantom study was designed to compare the radiation dose in thoracic and abdomen-pelvic CT scans with and without use of tube current modulation (TCM). Effective dose (ED) and size-specific dose estimation (SSDE) were calculated with the absorbed doses measured at selective radiosensitive organs using a thermoluminescence dosimeter-100 (TLD-100). When compared to protocols without TCM, the...

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 rev...

BACKGROUND Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the most commonly used alternative therapy in children with asthma, especially in the Chinese community. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the government-sponsored Outpatient's Healthcare Quality Improvement (OHQI) project with integrated TCM treatment on childhood asthma. METHODS This study used the Longitudinal Health Insurance D...

Doctor-shopping has caused an increase in medical expense, potential to receive duplicate medications, and suffer adverse drug reactions. We carried out a population-based retrospective study aimed at examining the user patterns of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) ambulatory care in Taiwan. We retrieved complete TCM ambulatory visit datasets for the year 2007 from the National Health Insuranc...

BACKGROUND Complementary traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to treat patients with cerebral palsy (CP). However, large-scale surveys examining its use in the treatment of CP and associated disorders are lacking. METHODS We enrolled 11,218 patients ≤ 18 years of age with CP in the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database from 1995 to 2011. Patients were categorized a...

PURPOSE To clarify the effect of tradional Chinese medicine (TCM) on different stage patients and to explore medication duration based on survival analysis. RESULTS 523 and 294 patients were respectively in the TCM group and the control group. For all patients, 6-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 57.6% after TCM and 46.6% after non-TCM (p = 0.0006). 6-year DFS for patients with stage I dis...

Objective To probe into the use of TCM preparations in the secondary prevention and treatment of CHD in China and investigate its influencing factors and relationship with guideline-recommended therapies. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2,803 CHD outpatients, a representative sample of China. Interviewers (physicians) were assigned to collect information concerning patients...