National TCM Key Lab of Serum Pharmacochemistry, Key Lab of Chinmedomics, Key Pharmacometabolomics Platform of Chinese Medicines, First Affiliated Hospital, and Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Heping Road 24, Harbin 150040, China.
Complement Ther Med. 2013 Jun;21(3):253-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2013.03.002. Epub 2013 Mar 25.
For World Health Organization proposed 'Health for All', we should be to promote the use of traditional medicine. Traditional Chinese acupuncture has a history over 3000 years and is effective in the treatment of many conditions with few side effects. Acupuncture, an intrinsic part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which utilizes fine needles to pierce through specific anatomical points (called "acupoints"), has been extensively used and has emerged as an important modality of complementary and alternative therapy to Western medicine. It is vital and necessary to explore the underlying biological mechanisms of acupuncture. Systems biology has become practically available and resembles acupuncture in many aspects and is current key technology that serves as the major driving force for translation of acupuncture medicine revolution into practice, will advance acupuncture therapy into healthcare for individuals. High-throughput genomics, proteomics and metabolomics in the context of systems biology have been able to identify potential candidates for the effects of acupuncture and provide valuable information toward understanding mechanisms of the therapy. To realize the full potential of TCM acupuncture, we describe the current status of principles and practice of acupuncture integrated with systems biology platform in the post-genomic era. Some characteristic examples are presented to highlight the application of this platform in omics and systems biology approaches to acupuncture research and some of the necessary milestones for moving acupuncture into mainstream health care.
世界卫生组织提出了“人人享有健康”的目标，我们应该促进传统医学的应用。中国传统针灸已有 3000 多年的历史，在治疗许多疾病方面具有疗效，且副作用较少。针灸是中医（TCM）的固有组成部分，它利用细针穿透特定的解剖点（称为“穴位”），已被广泛应用，并已成为西医的一种重要补充和替代疗法。探索针灸的潜在生物学机制至关重要。系统生物学已经成为一种实际可行的方法，在许多方面与针灸相似，是当前的关键技术，为针灸医学革命转化为实践提供了主要驱动力，将把针灸疗法推向个人医疗保健。在系统生物学的背景下，高通量基因组学、蛋白质组学和代谢组学已经能够识别针灸效应的潜在候选者，并提供有价值的信息，以了解该疗法的机制。为了充分发挥中医针灸的潜力，我们描述了在后基因组时代将针灸与系统生物学平台相结合的原理和实践的现状。我们提出了一些典型的例子，强调了该平台在针灸研究的组学和系统生物学方法中的应用，以及将针灸纳入主流医疗保健所必需的一些里程碑。
