Journal
CURRENT PHARMACEUTICAL DESIGN
Volume 18, Issue 31, Pages 4839-4853Publisher
BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBL LTD
DOI: 10.2174/138161212803216924
Keywords
Rikkunshito; GPCR; Kampo medicine; herbal medicine; ghrelin
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan
- Foundation for Promotion of Cancer Research in Japan
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Technology of Japan
- National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund [23-A-2, 23-A-38]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Traditional Japanese herbal, or Kampo medicine was developed and modified from Chinese herbal medicine. After the Japanese government approved Kampo for clinical use, much attention has been paid to establishing scientific evidence for the effectiveness of these medicines. Recent progress has been made in elucidating the mechanisms of action of some types of Kampo medicine, including rikkunshito (RKT), daikenchuto, and yokukansan. In this review, we focused on identifying the target molecules and the active ingredients of RKT. Thus far, many target molecules have been implicated in the mechanism of action of Kampo medicines, such as ion channels, enzymes, and receptors. In particular, G protein-coupled receptors are attractive candidates for explaining herbal medicine activity. This is particularly true of RKT, which is composed of 8 independent, crude drug extracts. Recent reports have shown that RKT elicits its effects through dual action to the G protein-coupled receptors: inhibition of serotonergic 5-HT2C and 5-HT2B receptors and activation of ghrelin receptors via specific ingredients of RKT. In addition, we suggest that the identification of the effective ingredients from Kampo medicines could contribute to the discovery and development of new drugs by means of modern high-throughput drug screening technology.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available