Xian ZhouWestern Sydney University · National institue of Complementary medicine
Xian Zhou
Doctor of Philosophy
Research Support Program Fellow - Natural Products, Cardiovascular Disease and Mental Health
About
52
Publications
5,786
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
690
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Dr Zhou has a strong and continuing interest in synergistic interaction studies aimed at identifying synergistic interactions among constituents in complex combination at various biological targets and exploring the mechanistic actions at molecular level and associated signalling pathways.
Additional affiliations
January 2018 - April 2021
Publications
Publications (52)
With the growing interest in the medicinal use of propolis, numerous studies have reported significant interactions between propolis extract and pharmaceutical drugs which may result in great clinical benefits or risks. The present study aims to review the drug–herb interactions of the full-spectrum propolis extract and main pharmaceutical drugs fr...
Ethnopharmacological relevance:
Pien Tze Huang is a classic traditional Chinese medicinal product, used for inflammatory diseases as stated in China Pharmacopoeia. In particular, it is effective in treating liver diseases and pro-inflammatory conditions. Acetaminophen (APAP) is a widely used analgesic drug, but its over-dose is associated with acu...
Introduction: Neuroinflammation is an important pathological event contributing to the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. The hyperactivation of microglia triggers the release of excessive proinflammatory mediators that lead to the leaky blood-brain barrier and impaired neuronal survival. Andrographolide (AN), baicalein (BA) and 6...
Diabetes mellitus has been an epidemic in the twenty-first century and an approximately 50% risk of diabetes predisposed to cognitive decline leading to dementia in humans. There is an urgent need to understand the pathophysiology and identify molecular targets of cognitive impairment in diabetes mellitus that might lead to improved therapy. Mounti...
Extensive research supported the therapeutic potential of curcumin, a naturally occurring compound, as a promising cytokinesuppressive anti-inflammatory drug. This study aimed to investigate the synergistic anti-inflammatory and anti-cytokine activities by combining 6-shogaol and 10-shogaol to curcumin, and associated mechanisms in modulating lipop...
Inspired by ethnopharmacological knowledge, we conducted a bioassay-guided fractionation of the leaves of Tristaniopsis laurina which led to the discovery of a new anti-inflammatory compound, tristaenone A (1). The structure was elucidated by detailed spectroscopic data analysis, and the absolute configuration was established using X-ray crystallog...
The lack of effective treatment for neurological disorders has encouraged the search for novel therapeutic strategies. Remarkably, neuroinflammation provoked by the activated microglia is emerging as an important therapeutic target for neurological dysfunction in the central nervous system. In the pathological context, the hyperactivation of microg...
Crocins (CRs) and the related active constituents derived from Crocus sativus L. (Saffron) have demonstrated protective effects against cerebral ischemia and ischemic stroke, with various bioactivities including neuroprotection, anti-neuroinflammation, antioxidant, and cardiovascular protection. Among CRs, crocin (CR) has been shown to act on multi...
Endothelial dysfunction is an early pathological event in diabetic angiopathy which is the most common complication of diabetes. This study aims to investigate individual and combined actions of Curcumin (Cur) and Baicalein (Bai) in protecting vascular function. The cellular protective effects of Cur, Bai and Cur+Bai (1:1, w/w) were tested in H2O2...
Endothelial dysfunction is an early hallmark of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Monotherapies are limited due to the complex, multifactorial pathways. The multi-component and multi-targeted approach of natural products have the potential to manage CVDs.
This review aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the synergistic mechanism of natural pr...
Diabetes-induced cognitive impairment (DCI) presents a major public health risk among the aging population. Previous clinical attempts on known therapeutic targets for DCI, such as depleted insulin secretion, insulin resistance, and hyperglycaemia have delivered poor patient outcomes. However, recent evidence has demonstrated that the gut microbiom...
Objective
Granules of herbal extracts are a popular medicinal preparation consumed in traditional Chinese medicine clinical practice. However, their quality and efficacy evaluation are lacking. This study aimed to compare the quality and anti-oxidant activity of Dan Shen (Salvia miltiorrhiza Radix & Rhizoma) granule extracts with their herbal extra...
This study aims to investigate the combined anti-inflammatory activity of ginger and turmeric extracts. By comparing the activities of individual and combined extracts in lipopolysaccharide and interferon-γ-induced murine RAW 264.7 cells, we demonstrated that ginger-turmeric combination was optimal at a specific ratio (5:2, w/w) in inhibiting nitri...
Prof. Dr. Peter Riederer, the former Head of the Neurochemistry Department of the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Clinic at the University of Würzburg (Germany), has been one of the pioneers of research into oxidative stress in Parkinson's and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This review will outline how his scientific contribution to the field has opened a...
Synergy plays a prominent role in herbal medicines to increase potency and widen the therapeutic windows. The mechanism of synergy in herbal medicines is often associated with multi-targeted behavior and complex signaling pathways which are challenging to elucidate. This study aims to investigate the synergistic mechanism of a combination (GT) of g...
Objective:
This study assessed the anti-arthritic effect and protection of Gedunin (GDN) on joint tissues and revealed the possible mechanism in suppressing rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods:
LPS-induced macrophages and TNF-α-stimulated synovial fibroblasts (MH7A) or IL-1β-stimulated primary rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts (RASFs) wer...
Dendrobium mixture (DM) is a patent Chinese herbal formulation consisting of Dendrobii Caulis, Astragali Radix, Rehmanniae Radix as the main ingredients. DM has been shown to alleviate diabetic related symptoms attributed to its anti-hyperglycaemic and anti-inflammatory activities. However, the effect on diabetic induced cognitive dysfunction has n...
Previous studies reported inconsistent findings on autophagy activation in skeletal muscles after acute exercise. In this study, we investigated the effect of a single bout of exhaustive treadmill exercise on AMPK and autophagy activations in mice gastrocnemius muscle in vivo. Male ICR/CD-1 mice were randomly divided into the control and exercise g...
This study aims to elucidate the role of Transcription factor EB (TFEB) in protecting C2C12 myotubes against palmitate (PA)-induced insulin resistance (IR) and explored its mechanism associated with autophagy. PA treatment significantly decreased insulin sensitivity in myotubes and downregulated TFEB protein expression. TFEB overexpression signific...
Curcumin (C) and resveratrol (R) are two well-known nutraceuticals with strong antioxidant activity that can protect cells from oxidative stress. This study aims to investigate the synergy of CR combinations in protecting human endothelial EAhy926 cells against H2O2-induced oxidative stress and its related mechanisms. C and R as individual compound...
NLRP3 inflammasome is a key mediator in ischemic stroke-induced neuroinflammation and subsequent brain injury. Our previous study demonstrated the potent activity of Pien-Tze-Huang (PTH), a well-known Chinese patent formula, in reducing mitochondria-mediated neuronal apoptosis in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion impaired rats. This study aims to eluci...
Reaction flow (RF) chromatography is a powerful and efficient approach that utilizes conventional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)–ultraviolet (UV)–visible detection. This technique exploits a novel column end-fitting and an extra HPLC pump that delivers a reagent specific for selective detection, in particular the antioxidant profilin...
Whilst the popular use of herbal medicine globally, it poses challenges in managing potential drug-herb interaction. There are two folds of the drug-herb interaction, a beneficial interaction that may improve therapeutic outcome and minimise the toxicity of drug desirably; by contrast, negative interaction may evoke unwanted clinical consequences,...
The objective of this bibliometric review was to identify the volume, breadth, and characteristics of clinical studies evaluating Tai Chi published between January 2010 and January 2020. Five English and four Chinese language databases were searched. Following independent screening, 1018 eligible publications representing 987 studies were identifie...
Propolis is a by-product of honeybee farming known for its broad therapeutic benefits around the world and is extensively used in the health food and beverage industry. Despite Australia being one of the world's megadiverse countries with rich flora and fauna, Australian propolis samples have not been explored adequately with most in vitro and in v...
Neuroinflammation is believed to play a primary role in the pathogenesis of most neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and schizophrenia. Currently, suitable in vitro neuroinflammation models for studying cellular interactions and inflammatory mechanisms at the neurovascular unit are still scarce. In this study, we e...
Background: Granules are a popular way of administrating herbal decoctions. However, there are no standardised quality control methods for granules, with few studies comparing the granules to traditional herbal decoctions. This study developed a multi-analytical platform to compare the quality of granule products to herb/decoction pieces of Angelic...
Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM), an integral part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has been implementing complex herbal formulae usually consisting of two or more medicinal herbs for the prevention and treatment of various diseases since antiquity. The key mechanisms of action of CHM for the systematic management of many diseases largely rely on the...
Background
This study investigated the protective effects of the Danshen (DS) and Sanqi (SQ) herb pair on cell survival in the human cardiovascular endothelial (EA.hy926) cell line exposed to injury.
Methods
Nine combination ratios of Danshen-Sanqi extracts (DS-SQ) were screened for their protective effects in the EA.hy926 cell line against two di...
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is not only used prevalently in Asian countries but has also gained a stable market globally. As a principal form of TCM, Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is comprised of treatments using multiple Chinese herbs which have complex chemical profiles. Due to a lack of understanding of its modality and a lack of standard...
Background: This study investigated the combination effects of the Danshen and Sanqi herb pair on angiogenesis in vitro. Methods: Nine combination ratios of Danshen-Sanqi extracts (DS-SQ) were screened for their angiogenic effects in the human vascular endothelial EAhy 926 cell line via cell proliferation, cell migration and tube formation activiti...
Sailuotong (SLT) is a standardised three-herb formulation consisting of Panax ginseng, Ginkgo biloba, and Crocus sativus designed for the management of vascular dementia. While the latest clinical trials have demonstrated beneficial effects of SLT in vascular dementia, the underlying cellular mechanisms have not been fully explored. The aim of this...
Traditional Chinese medicine is an important part of primary health care in Asian countries that has utilised complex herbal formulations (consisting 2 or more medicinal herbs) for treating diseases over thousands of years. There seems to be a general assumption that the synergistic therapeutic effects of Chinese herbal medicine derive from the com...
Aims . This study aims to investigate the possible synergistic interactions of the Danshen-Sanqi combination on vascular disease via their anti-inflammatory activities. Methods . Nine combination ratios of Danshen-Sanqi extracts were screened in the RAW264.7 cell line and their anti-inflammatory effects were examined in lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) i...
Purpose:
Adenosine plays an important role in the pathogenesis of homocysteine-associated vascular complications.
Methods:
This study examined the effects of dipyridamole, an inhibitor for nucleoside transport, on impaired angiogenic processes caused by homocysteine and adenosine in human cardiovascular endothelial cell line (EAhy926).
Results:...
Granule products produced from medicinal herbs are gaining popularity. However, there have been few studies comparing the quality or efficacy of granules with those of herbal formulations. This study aims to compare commercially available notoginseng (Sanqi in Chinese) in both raw and granule forms by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and ultra-perfo...
Three families of Bacillus cyclic lipopeptides - surfactins, iturins and fengycins -have well-recognized potential uses in biotechnology and biopharmaceutical applications. This study outlines the isolation and characterization of locillomycins, a novel family of cyclic lipopeptide produced by B. subtilis 916. Structure elucidation of locillomycins...
Introduction: Zingiberis Rhizoma is traditionally used to treat atherosclerosis, arthritis and rheumatologic complications. Zingiberis Rhizoma contains phenolic bioactives including gingerols and shogaols, which are well-known antioxidants. Recently, there is growing trend towards the clinical use of herbal granules due to their portability, and ea...
Introduction: Zingiberis Rhizoma is traditionally used to treat atherosclerosis, arthritis and rheumatologic complications. Zingiberis Rhizoma contains phenolic bioactives including gingerols and shogaols, which are well-known antioxidants. Recently, there is growing trend towards the clinical use of herbal granules due to their portability, and ea...
Herbal medicines have been used in the management of diabetes in traditional medicine. This chapter reviews recent findings of the most popular herbs reported to treat diabetes through their relevant mechanistic pathways. These include increased insulin secretion, improvement in insulin sensitivity, enhanced glucose uptake by adipose and muscle tis...
Herbal medicines have been used in the management of diabetes in traditional medicine. This chapter reviews recent findings of the most popular herbs reported to treat diabetes through their relevant mechanistic pathways. These include increased insulin secretion, improvement in insulin sensitivity, enhanced glucose uptake by adipose and muscle tis...
Questions
Question (1)
I have tried different concentrations of LPS (1, 10 ug/mL), on THP-1 cells differentiated by PMA (1 x 10^6 cells/mL, or 2 x 10^6 cells/mL), at different time points (3h, 6h and 24h). There is no problem with the human IL-6 ELISA assay, as the IL-6 standards show a clear dose-dependent response. However, the activated cells (with LPS) had very low absorbance with the same incubation time with the standards.
The same samples and model was used to check TNF-a and it was successful.
Anyone can help with this situation? Thanks in advance!
Projects
Project (1)
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a holistic approach to maintaining good health through the harmonious interaction of the body with the environment. A defining characteristic of TCM is the use of several medicinal herbs to produce 'composite formulae' (called 'Fufang' in TCM) to target multiple symptoms which define a disease or several diseases. It is thought that combinational herbal therapy can exert greater therapeutic efficacy than single herbs and/or chemicals. This could be explained by the interaction between the constituents of a mixture of herbs known as synergism. Although many of these herbal combinations have known or purported therapeutic activity, the underlying mechanisms have yet to be fully explored. The overall aim of this study will characterise one popular herbal combination, namely Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen) and Panax notoginseng (Sanqi), by determining its molecular mode of action and synergistic contributions in vitro. This project will advance the knowledge and expand our understanding of TCM, and support TCM's acceptance into integrative medicine.
