Journal of Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology

Trends in phytomedicine and phytotherapy research: From traditional herbal medicine to novel pharmaceuticals based on the synergy concept

2^nd International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmacology and Ethnopharmacology

May 02-04, 2016 Chicago, USA

Alexander George Panossian

Swedish Herbal Institute Research & Development, Sweden

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Exp Pharmacol

Abstract:

The reductionist method of fractionation of herbal extracts with the purpose to isolate an active principle was the core of drug developing strategy for many centuries. It is based on the assumption that herbal extracts contain one or two active principles. However, this approach underestimates the complexity of pathogenesis of diseases and has reached its limit. At the contrary, the holistic approach of multi-target therapy by multicomponent plant extracts, based on networks interactions and synergy concepts can be more effective. The novel method of assessment of synergistic and antagonistic interactions of combinations of herbal extracts by transcriptome-wide microarray-based mRNA expression profiling of isolated cell lines is a valuable tool of understanding the mechanisms of action of herbal drugs and their possible clinical benefits. Isolated brain cells are separately incubated with plant extracts or their fixed combination. The total numbers of more than two fold-deregulated genes from all experiments are compared by Venn diagram. The number of genes deregulated by the combination, but not by any constituent alone provided evidence of synergistic interaction of the ingredients in the fixed combination. These studies showed that the combination of plant extracts may not exhibit some effects that single ingredients have. At the same time, it may exert some new and unique features, which the constituents do not reveal. In fact, it is a �??newborn�?� unique biologically active substance, a hybrid of �??parent�?� ingredients. Further, interactive pathways downstream analysis of significantly up- or down-regulated genes provides predicted effects on cellular, physiological functions and disease.

Biography :

Email: alexander.panossian@shi.se