Objective: Anorexia is the long-term decreased sensation of appetite. Besides the pharmacotherapy, in China, massage therapy is also used by many traditional Chinese medicine physicians to treat anorexia in children. This paper conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of massage therapy for the treatment of anorexia in children. Methods: Seven databases were used in our research as follows: Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PubMed, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), and the Wan-fang Database. Search terms were as follows: (Massage OR tuina OR manipulation) AND (infant OR baby OR child OR pediatrics) AND (anorexia OR anorexias OR anorexia nervosas) AND (randomized controlled trial [RCTs]). Results: A total of 30 studies, including 2991 patients (1545 in the intervention group and 1446 in the control group), were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed that the relative risk was 1.31 regarding clinical effective rate with 95% confidence intervals from 1.24 to 1.38. Conclusions: Massage therapy was significantly better than pharmacotherapy in treating anorexia in children. However, the quality of evidence for this finding was low due to high risk of bias of the included studies. Thus, well-designed RCTs are still needed to further evaluate the efficacy of massage therapy.

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Objective: To investigate the effects of Chinese herbal monomer shikonin which has the function of cooling blood and detoxification on abnormally activated T lymphocyte and its related signal pathways and to elucidate the role of shikonin in the pathological state of psoriasis and its mechanism of treating psoriasis. Materials and Methods: Jurkat E6-1 T lymphocytes were activated with phorbol ester and ionomycin. The shikonin concentration of 0.5–2 μg/mL was applied to the cells, and the proliferation of T lymphocytes was detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. Flow cytometry was used to measure CD69 expression on the cell membrane and intracellular free calcium ion concentration ([Ca²⁺]i); enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the levels of interleukin (IL)-2, interferon-γ (IFN-γ), and (TNF-α) released by activated T lymphocytes; quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were used to observe the expression of nuclear transcription factor mRNA and protein, respectively. Results: Different concentrations of shikonin could significantly inhibit cell proliferation, CD69 expression, and secretion of Th1 cytokines. In addition, shikonin could effectively reduce the [Ca²⁺]i and protein kinase C phosphorylation proteins. Besides that, shikonin could significantly reduce the nuclear transcription factor nuclear factor of activated T lymphocytes mRNA expression, downregulate c-Jun mRNA and protein expression, and inhibit NF-κB protein expression. All the above indicators show a certain dose–effect relationship. Conclusions: Shikonin can exert immune regulation by inhibiting the function of overactivated T lymphocytes. Hence, this study provides experimental basis for the mechanism and application prospect of shikonin in the treatment of psoriasis.

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Objective: This study aimed to investigate effective components of dried ginger (DG) in warming lung to reduce watery phlegm and in vivo tissue distribution on the syndrome of cold fluid retained in lung of rats with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by means of the “syndrome-efficacy-biological sample analysis” method and then to explore its meridian tropism. Methods: Wistar rats were given nasal drops of 200-μL lipopolysaccharide and smoke 30 min two times a day, then put the appropriate dose of ice water, and freeze for an hour to build model rats. On the 16^th day, the drug group was orally administered of DG (500 mg/mL) until the 30^th day. Blood samples and biological tissues were collected from the orbital venous plexus into heparinized hemostasis tubes at 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240, and 360 min after the last administration. Using ultraviolet-high-performance liquid chromatography (Waters, USA) method, the effective components were tested, and DAS 3.0 software (Mathematical Pharmacology Professional Committee of China, Shanghai, China) was used to analyze the results. Results: The compounds of DG entering into blood were 6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, and 8-gingerol. Tissue distribution analysis indicates that three active ingredients are widely present in the lung, spleen, kidney, liver, heart, large intestine, stomach, small intestine, and other organs of rats with COPD. Conclusions: 6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, and 8-gingerol belong to effective components of DG in curing the syndrome of cold fluid retained in lung of rats with COPD and mainly distributed in organs including the spleen, stomach, lung, kidney, liver, and heart.

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Objective: To determine the hot/cold of South American Açaí (Euterpe oleracea Mart.). Materials and Methods: 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was performed to compare the influence of Açaí and phellodendron bark (Cortex Phellodendri Chinensis) on the growth and proliferation of HepG2 and Hep3B cell strains. The morphological changes of the two cell strains treated with Açaí and C. Phellodendri were observed using an inverted phase contrast microscope. Trypan blue dye exclusion assay was used to compare and analyze the toxicity effects of Açaí. The content of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and the ratio of NADH/NAD⁺ of the treated cells were detected using a spectrophotometer to determine the influence of Açaí to the energy metabolism of the two cell strains. Results: Within the range of measured concentrations, both Açaí and C. Phellodendri displayed separately the stronger inhibitory effects on cell growth, proliferation, and energy metabolism of the two cell strains. By MTT assay, Açaí showed significant (P < 0.05) or highly significant (P < 0.01) inhibitory effects on cell proliferation within the concentration range of 0.25–40 μg/mL, which was similar to the effects of C. Phellodendri. From the results of microscopic examination, the morphological of lower cell density, attenuated granularity, and more outstretched cells in irregular polygonal shape could be observed in the cells treated with Açaí, which was also similar to that of C. Phellodendri. In trypan blue staining assay, all concentrations of Açaí showed negligible toxicity effects, exactly as that of C. Phellodendri. Açaí showed a highly significant effect of decreasing the content of intracellular NADH as well as the ratio of NADH/NAD⁺ (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: The effect of Açaí on HepG2 and Hep3B strains just as C. Phellodendri can reduce energy metabolism and inhibit the growth and proliferation. All performance characteristics of two cell strains treated with Açaí belong to that characteristic of cold property drug. From the study results, we can deduce that the drug property of Açaí is cold.

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Acupuncture has been used for 1000 years, but how it gives therapeutic effect is not completely understood. Integration of brain wave as the central nervous system plays an important role in acupuncture efficacy. To explore the effect of acupuncture stimulation in the central nervous system, it is imperative to decide the adjustments in brain waves that produced because of acupuncture stimulation. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is often used in the acupuncture research area. EEG records spontaneous cerebral activity after some time by positioning electrodes on scalp surface. Using EEG, we can observe the brain connectivity regarding the acupuncture stimulation. An overview regarding the effect of manual acupuncture on human brain wave through EEG observation will be discussed in this review.

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Objective: The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of Kangfuxin lotion as adjunctive therapy for treating ulcerative colitis (UC) through a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Materials and Methods: RCTs comparing Kangfuxin lotion with no treatment, placebo, western medications or combination therapy for treatment of UC were included in this study. Two English and three Chinese electronic databases were searched. All searches ended in December 2017. Data and quality assessment carried out respectively. RevMan 5.2 software (Copenhagen, The Nordic Cochrane Centre, The Cochrane Collaboration, 2014) was used to analyze with effect estimate presented as mean difference (MD), risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Fifteen trials with 1050 participants were included in this review. Overall, 13 trials were eligible for meta-analysis. Kangfuxin lotion combined with Mesalazine was better than Mesalazine on clinical cure rate (RR 1.45, 95% CI 1.24–1.70, 7 trials), recurrence rate of UC (RR 0.22, 95% CI 0.07–0.72, 2 trials), or endoscopic mucosal recovery (RR 8.05, 95% CI 2.64–24.57, 2 trials). And Kangfuxin lotion combined with triple live bacteria tablets (Bifidobacterium-Lactobacillus- Streptococcus thermophilus)was superior with regard to symptoms remission rate (RR 5.36, 95% CI 1.73–16.60, 3 trials), endoscopic disease activity score (MD − 2.30, 95% CI − 2.64–−1.96, 1 trial). There were no reports on the serious adverse events of Kangfuxin lotion. Conclusion: Kangfuxin lotion as adjunctive treatment appears more effective than medications alone on clinical cure rate, recurrence rate, endoscopic mucosal recovery and improvement rate of related symptoms.

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Objective: The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of integrated Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of neurological autoimmune diseases. Materials and Methods: The literature was comprehensively searched to collect the randomized controlled trials about integrated Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of neurological autoimmune diseases. Neurological autoimmune diseases mainly occur in the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system. Therefore, multiple sclerosis (MS) was chosen as the representative in the CNS, and Guillain–Barre syndrome (GBS) was chosen as the representative in the peripheral nervous system. Extended Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score, effective rate, clinical symptom score, neurological functional sign score, recurrence frequency, and incidence rate of adverse reactions were chosen as the markers of outcome variables of MS, and the effective rate and Hughes score were also chosen as the markers of outcome variables of GBS. Results: For MS, the results showed that there was a significant difference in statistical analysis between the experimental group and the control group in EDSS score, the effective rate, and the recurrence frequency. However, through the comparison of clinical symptom score, neurological functional sign score, and incidence rate of adverse reaction of both two groups, the results showed that there was no significant difference in the statistical analysis. For GBS, through the comparison of effective rate and Hughes score of both two groups, the results showed that there was a significant difference in statistical analysis. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that compared with Western medicine, the therapy of integrated Chinese and Western medicine was more effective in treating neurological autoimmune diseases.

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