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The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them

BACKGROUND: Japanese herbal medicines can be used as alternatives to estrogen therapy and are sometimes prescribed for menopausal syndrome because they have fewer side effects and are associated with better compliance than estrogen therapy, but little is known about the pharmacological mechanisms of...

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Autores principales: Wang, Zeyun, Kanda, Seiji, Shimono, Takaki, Enkh-Undraa, Dambajamts, Nishiyama, Toshimasa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5865359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29566679
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12906-018-2170-4
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author Wang, Zeyun
Kanda, Seiji
Shimono, Takaki
Enkh-Undraa, Dambajamts
Nishiyama, Toshimasa
author_facet Wang, Zeyun
Kanda, Seiji
Shimono, Takaki
Enkh-Undraa, Dambajamts
Nishiyama, Toshimasa
author_sort Wang, Zeyun
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Japanese herbal medicines can be used as alternatives to estrogen therapy and are sometimes prescribed for menopausal syndrome because they have fewer side effects and are associated with better compliance than estrogen therapy, but little is known about the pharmacological mechanisms of such treatments. This study aimed to explore the mechanisms responsible for the estrogen-like effects of five widely prescribed Japanese herbal medicines (unkeito, kamishoyosan, nyoshinsan, keishibukuryogan, and tokishakuyakusan). METHODS: We evaluated the estrogenic activity of these five Japanese herbal medicines and their metabolites using an estrogen receptor (ER)-dependent cell proliferation bioassay and an ER-dependent reporter assay. We also investigated the estrogenic activity of the crude drugs within the medicines and attempted to detect inter-crude drug synergistic effects using the ER-dependent reporter assay. RESULTS: We found that unkeito, kamishoyosan, and nyoshinsan exhibited estrogenic activity, and they displayed stronger estrogenic activity after being metabolized. Then, we focused on investigating the estrogenic activity of the crude drugs present within unkeito. We found that glycyrrhizae radix, cinnamomi cortex, evodiae fructus, and zingiberis rhizoma demonstrated ERβ-dependent estrogenic activity. The combined use of evodiae fructus and glycyrrhizae radix, or evodiae fructus and cinnamomi cortex produced synergistic ERβ-dependent estrogenic activity. CONCLUSION: It was suggested that unkeito, kamishoyosan, and nyoshinsan exert estrogenic activity, and hence, might be useful for treating menopausal syndrome. Furthermore, synergistic estrogenic effects were detected between some of the crude drugs present within unkeito.
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spelling pubmed-58653592018-03-27 The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them Wang, Zeyun Kanda, Seiji Shimono, Takaki Enkh-Undraa, Dambajamts Nishiyama, Toshimasa BMC Complement Altern Med Research Article BACKGROUND: Japanese herbal medicines can be used as alternatives to estrogen therapy and are sometimes prescribed for menopausal syndrome because they have fewer side effects and are associated with better compliance than estrogen therapy, but little is known about the pharmacological mechanisms of such treatments. This study aimed to explore the mechanisms responsible for the estrogen-like effects of five widely prescribed Japanese herbal medicines (unkeito, kamishoyosan, nyoshinsan, keishibukuryogan, and tokishakuyakusan). METHODS: We evaluated the estrogenic activity of these five Japanese herbal medicines and their metabolites using an estrogen receptor (ER)-dependent cell proliferation bioassay and an ER-dependent reporter assay. We also investigated the estrogenic activity of the crude drugs within the medicines and attempted to detect inter-crude drug synergistic effects using the ER-dependent reporter assay. RESULTS: We found that unkeito, kamishoyosan, and nyoshinsan exhibited estrogenic activity, and they displayed stronger estrogenic activity after being metabolized. Then, we focused on investigating the estrogenic activity of the crude drugs present within unkeito. We found that glycyrrhizae radix, cinnamomi cortex, evodiae fructus, and zingiberis rhizoma demonstrated ERβ-dependent estrogenic activity. The combined use of evodiae fructus and glycyrrhizae radix, or evodiae fructus and cinnamomi cortex produced synergistic ERβ-dependent estrogenic activity. CONCLUSION: It was suggested that unkeito, kamishoyosan, and nyoshinsan exert estrogenic activity, and hence, might be useful for treating menopausal syndrome. Furthermore, synergistic estrogenic effects were detected between some of the crude drugs present within unkeito. BioMed Central 2018-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC5865359/ /pubmed/29566679 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12906-018-2170-4 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wang, Zeyun
Kanda, Seiji
Shimono, Takaki
Enkh-Undraa, Dambajamts
Nishiyama, Toshimasa
The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them
title The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them
title_full The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them
title_fullStr The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them
title_full_unstemmed The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them
title_short The in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in Japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them
title_sort in vitro estrogenic activity of the crude drugs found in japanese herbal medicines prescribed for menopausal syndrome was enhanced by combining them
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5865359/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29566679
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12906-018-2170-4
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