title: Application of proteomics to determine the mechanism of action of traditional Chinese medicine remedies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The rationale for using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on the experience that has been gained from its wide use over thousands of years. However, the mechanisms of action of many TCM are still unclear. Proteomics, which mainly characterizes protein functions, protein-protein interactions, and protein modification in tissues or animals, can be used to investigate signaling pathway perturbations in cells or the whole body. Proteomics has improved the discovery process of effective TCM compounds, and has helped to elucidate their possible mechanisms of action. Therefore, a systematic review of the application of proteomics on TCM research is of great importance and necessity. This review strives to describe the literature on the application of proteomics to elucidate the mechanism of action of TCM on various diseases, and provide the essential discussion on the further utilization of proteomics data to accelerate TCM research.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature survey was performed via electronic search on Pubmed with keywords 'Proteomics' and 'Traditional Chinese Medicine'. The papers written in English were acquired and analyzed in this review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This review mainly summarizes the application of proteomics to investigate TCM remedies for neuronal disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and immunology-related disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Researchers have applied proteomics to study the mechanism of action of TCM and made substantial progresses. Further studies are required to determine the protein targets of the active compounds, analyze the mechanism of actions in patients, compare the clinical effects with western medicine.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Shanghai Colleges for TCM New Drug Discovery, Shanghai 201203, PR China.
authors.forename: Yuanzhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lao
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Shanghai Colleges for TCM New Drug Discovery, Shanghai 201203, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab in Healthy Science and Technology, Division of Life Science, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China.
authors.forename: Naihan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Shanghai Colleges for TCM New Drug Discovery, Shanghai 201203, PR China.
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, PR China; Engineering Research Center of Shanghai Colleges for TCM New Drug Discovery, Shanghai 201203, PR China. Electronic address: xuhongxi88@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hongxi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D020834:Ethnopharmacology / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal
keywords: Mechanism study; Proteomics; Traditional Chinese Medicine