title: Strategy of integrated evaluation on treatment of traditional Chinese medicine as 'interaction of system to system' and establishment of novel fuzzy target contribution recognition with herb-pairs, a case study on Astragali Radix-Fructus Corni.
abstract: To date, in the struggle against diseases and the development of TCM, what we lack is wisdom rather than knowledge. Studies on pharmacology of traditional Chinese medicine are facing critical challenges on how to select the proper parameters or targets to represent the pharmacological evaluation system. With seven steps of optimized modules established by ourselves, we can re-evaluate TCM in a panorama view with a proper pharmacological evaluation system. In this article, with the treatment of TCM as 'interaction of system to system', a novel and generally applicable approach called fuzzy target contribution recognition was established and agents from Astragali Radix-Fructus Corni in resisting diabetic nephropathy were successfully discovered for the first time. CG6, a promising agent from this herb-pair on the treatment of diabetic nephropathy, was finally acquired and its possible molecular mechanism was explored through a nuclear factor erythroid 2-Like 2 (NFE2L2) activation-dependent pathway.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Institute of Pharmaceutical and Food Engineering, Shanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Taiyuan, 030024, PR China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China. Electronic address: haocai_98@126.com.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia.
authors.forename: Sicong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, Ohio State University, OH, 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Xinwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211198, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhengwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Kailei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Fengxian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Kunming
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China; Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, PR China.
authors.forename: Baochang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D027885:Astragalus propinquus; D029768:Cornus / Q000737:chemistry*; D003928:Diabetic Nephropathies / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D051379:Mice; D051267:NF-E2-Related Factor 2 / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D051267:NF-E2-Related Factor 2; C027492:Huang Qi
keywords: Diabetic nephropathy; Fuzzy target contribution recognition; NFE2L2 activation-dependent pathway; Pharmacological evaluation system; Traditional chinese medicine