Duan Yu, Pei Ke, Cai Hao, Fan Kai-Lei, Liu Xiao, Cai Bao-Chang
School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China.
Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China.
Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2016 Nov;41(21):3919-3926. doi: 10.4268/cjcmm20162106.
As the smallest unit of traditional Chinese medicinal formula compatibility, herb-pair has the basic characteristic of traditional Chinese medicinal formula compatibility. In recent years, herb-pair investigation has attracted much attention, which is an indispensable part of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. With the decrease of the efficiency in the discovery of new drug, how to discover new drugs from traditional Chinese medicinal herb-pair has also been a bottleneck for the research and development of drug. The authors reviewed the domestic and foreign literatures in the latest years and summarized the current situations and the existing problems of herb-pair study. Based on these investigations, the authors innovatively proposed a novel concept of "precision herb-pair". Difference from traditional Chinese medicinal herb-pair or formulae with extensive roles and unclear efficacies, "precision herb-pair" belongs to a developed new mini herb-pair formula with an exact treatment and a relatively clear composition based on a certain specific disease. In addition, the authors also proposed a new strategy of "herb-pair - screen of multiple constituents based on column separation and in vitro cell viability - fuzzy target recognition pharmacology - re-evaluation of precision herb-pair", and successfully applied it to the development of a precision herb-pair from Astragali Radix-Corni Fructus in treatment of diabetic nephropathy. This proposed new strategy is simple, easy to carry out, and has a wide application, and can offer references and thoughts for the modern investigation of herb-pair and the research and development of new drug.
药对作为中药方剂配伍的最小单元，具备中药方剂配伍的基本特征。近年来，药对研究备受关注，是中药现代化不可或缺的一部分。随着新药发现效率的降低，如何从中药药对中发现新药也成为药物研发的瓶颈。作者查阅了近年来国内外文献，总结了药对研究的现状及存在的问题。基于这些调研，作者创新性地提出了“精准药对”这一全新概念。与作用广泛、疗效不明确的传统中药药对或方剂不同，“精准药对”属于一种基于特定疾病、治疗精准且组成相对明确的新型小型药对方剂。此外，作者还提出了“药对 - 基于柱分离的多成分筛选及体外细胞活力 - 模糊靶点识别药理学 - 精准药对再评价”的新策略，并成功将其应用于黄芪 - 山茱萸药对治疗糖尿病肾病的精准药对开发中。所提出的这一新策略简单易行、应用广泛，可为药对的现代研究及新药研发提供参考和思路。
