title: Modulation of dragon's blood on tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium currents in dorsal root ganglion neurons and identification of its material basis for efficacy.
abstract: To clarify the modulation of dragon's blood on the tetrodotoxin-resistant (TTX-R) sodium currents in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons and explore its corresponding material basis for the efficacy, using whole-cell patch clamp technique, the effects of dragon's blood and the combined effects of three components (cochinchinenin A, cochinchinenin B, and loureirin B) extracted from dragon's blood on the TTX-R sodium currents in acute-isolated DRG neurons of rats were observed. According to the operational definition of material basis for the efficacy of TCM established, the material basis of the modulation on the TTX-R sodium currents in DRG neurons of dragon's blood was judged from the experimental results. The drug interaction equation of Greco et al. was used to assess the interaction of the three components extracted from dragon's blood. This investigation demonstrated that dragon's blood suppressed the peak TTX-R sodium currents in a dose-dependent way and affected the activations of TTX-R sodium currents. The effects of the combination of cochinchinenin A, cochinchinenin B, and loureirin B were in good agreement with those of dragon's blood. Although the three components used alone could modulate TTX-R sodium currents, the concentrations of the three components used alone were respectively higher than those used in combination when the inhibition rates on the TTX-R sodium currents of them used alone and in combination were the same. The combined effects of the three components were synergistic. These results suggested that the interference with pain messages caused by the modulation of dragon's blood on TTX-R sodium currents in DRG neurons may explain some of the analgesic effect of dragon's blood and the corresponding material basis for the efficacy is the combination of cochinchinenin A, cochinchinenin B, and loureirin B.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological & Medical Engineering, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, China. liu.xiangming@263.net
authors.forename: Xiangming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Su
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yuxia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002599:Chalcone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D031409:Dracaena / Q000737:chemistry; D004351:Drug Resistance; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D017136:Ion Transport / Q000187:drug effects; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012116:Resins, Plant / Q000494:pharmacology; D012964:Sodium / Q000378:metabolism*; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D010936:Plant Extracts; D012116:Resins, Plant; C475447:cochinchinenin; D013779:Tetrodotoxin; D002599:Chalcone; D012964:Sodium; C505764:loureirin B