title: The application of metabolomics in traditional Chinese medicine opens up a dialogue between Chinese and Western medicine.
abstract: Metabolomics provides an opportunity to develop the systematic analysis of the metabolites and has been applied to discovering biomarkers and perturbed pathways which can clarify the action mechanism of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM). TCM is a comprehensive system of medical practice that has been used to diagnose, treat and prevent illnesses more than 3000 years. Metabolomics represents a powerful approach that provides a dynamic picture of the phenotype of biosystems through the study of endogenous metabolites, and its methods resemble those of TCM. Recently, metabolomics tools have been used for facilitating interactional effects of both Western medicine and TCM. We describe a protocol for investigating how metabolomics can be used to open up 'dialogue' between Chinese and Western medicine, and facilitate lead compound discovery and development from TCM. Metabolomics will bridge the cultural gap between TCM and Western medicine and improve development of integrative medicine, and maximally benefiting the human.
authors.affiliation: National TCM Key Laboratory of Serum Pharmacochemistry, Key Laboratory of Metabolomics and Chinmedomics, Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Heping Road 24, Harbin, 150040, China; China Academy of Chinese Medical Science, Southern Street of Dongzhimen No. 16, Beijing, 100700, China.
authors.forename: Hongxin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Aihua
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Huamin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Xijun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055808:Drug Discovery; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D055048:Integrative Medicine; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D055432:Metabolomics
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal
keywords: Western medicine; biomarkers; drug discovery; metabolomics; systems biology; traditional medicine