title: Anti-fibro-hepatocarcinogenic Chinese herbal medicines: A mechanistic overview.
abstract: Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is an integral component of complementary/alternative medicine and it is increasingly becoming the preferred therapeutic modality for the treatment of liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide. Accordingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) has attested to the popularity and efficacy of indigenous herbal therapies including CHM as a first line of treatment for some diseases including liver disorders. However, the WHO and drug discovery experts have always recommended that use of indigenous herbal remedies must go hand-in-hand with the requisite mechanistic elucidation so as to constitute a system of verification of efficacy within the ethnobotanical context of use. Although many CHM experts have advanced knowledge on CHM, nonetheless, more enlightenment is needed, particularly mechanisms of action of CHMs on fibro-hepato-carcinogenesis. We, herein, provide in-depth mechanisms of the action of CHMs which have demonstrated anti-fibro-hepatocarcinogenic effects, in pre-clinical and clinical studies as published in PubMed and other major scientific databases. Specifically, the review brings out the important signaling pathways, and their downstream targets which are modulated at multi-level by various anti-fibro-hepatocarcinogenic CHMs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Laboratory Science, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana; Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Natural Medicine, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boye
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Natural Medicine, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Asenso
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
keywords: Chinese herbal medicine; fibro-hepato-carcinogenesis; immunomodulation; inflammation; mechanistic elucidation