Volume 189, 2 August 2016, Pages 61–80
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
Osteoporosis
is a chronic epidemic which can leads to enhanced bone fragility and
consequent an increase in fracture risk. Traditional Chinese medicine
(TCM) formulas have a long history of use in the prevention and
treatment of osteoporosis. Antiosteoporotic TCM formulas have
conspicuous advantage over single drugs. Systematic data mining of the
existing antiosteoporotic TCM formulas database can certainly help the
drug discovery processes and help the identification of safe candidates
with synergistic formulations. In this review, the authors summarize the
clinical use and animal experiments of TCM formulas and their mechanism
of action, and discuss the potential antiosteoporotic activity and the
active constituents of commonly used herbs in TCM formulas for the
therapy of osteoporosis.
Materials and methods
The
literature was searched from Medline, Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Spring
Link, Web of Science, CNKI and VIP database from 1989 to 2015, and also
collected from Chinese traditional books and Chinese Pharmacopoeia with
key words such as osteoporosis, osteoblast, osteoclast, traditional
Chinese medicine formulas to identify studies on the antiosteoporotic
effects of TCM formulas, herbs and chemical constituents, and also their
possible mechanisms.
Results
Thirty-three
TCM formulas were commonly used to treat osteoporosis, and showed
significant antiosteoporotic effects in human and animal. The herb
medicines and their chemical constituents in TCM formulas were
summarized, the pharmacological effects and chemical constituents of
commonly used herbs in TCM formulas were described in detail. The action
mechanisms of TCM formulas and their chemical constituents were
described. Finally, the implication for the discovery of
antiosteoporotic leads and combinatory ingredients from TCM formulas
were prospectively discussed.
Conclusions
Clinical
practice and animal experiments indicate that TCM formulas provide a
definite therapeutic effect on osteoporosis. The active constituents in
TCM formulas are diverse in chemical structure, and include flavonoids,
lignans, saponins and iridoid glycosides. Antiosteoporotic mechanism of
TCM formulas and herbs involves multi regulatory pathways, such as
Wnt/β-catenin, BMP/Smad, MAPK pathway and RANKL/OPG system.
Phytochemicals from TCM formulas and their compositional herb medicines
offer great potential for the development of novel antiosteoporotic
drugs. The active ingredients in TCM formulas can be developed in
combination as potent drugs, which may exhibit better antiosteoporotic
effects compared to the individual compound.
Chemical compounds studied in this article
- Aucubin (PubChem CID: 91458);
- Ecdysterone (PubChem CID: 271605);
- Catalpol (PubChem CID: 91520);
- Ferulic acid (PubChem CID: 445858);
- Sweroside (PubChem CID: 161036);
- Formononetin (PubChem CID: 5280378);
- Cinnamaldehyde (PubChem CID: 637511);
- AsperosaponinⅥ (PubChem CID: 71307450);
- Emodin (PubChem CID: 3220);
- Kaempferol (PubChem CID: 5280863)
Keywords
- Osteoporosis;
- Traditional Chinese medicine formulas;
- Clinical use;
- Action mechanism;
- Active ingredients
© 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
