Determining the synergistic effects of complementary medicines on pro-inflammatory cytokines,

像流感这样的疾病，通常被称为“流感”，会产生发烧、头痛、嗜睡和食欲不振等症状。大多数人没有意识到的是，产生这些症状的并不是流感病毒，而是人体对流感病毒的免疫反应。这种免疫反应的产生是因为流感病毒刺激细胞产生一种叫做细胞因子的分子，而细胞因子在体内有很多作用，包括引起发烧和食欲不振。在严重感染中，如由1918年大流行的流感病毒引起的感染，以及在“禽流感”（H5N1）感染期间，人们会因为免疫反应变得压倒性而死亡。在这些反应中产生的细胞因子实际上是非常有害的，即使少量的细胞因子有助于杀死病毒并治愈感染。在这一领域工作的研究人员将这些严重的反应比作“细胞因子风暴”。这个项目的重点是寻找替代疗法，如中医中用于预防细胞因子风暴的疗法，以便在流感大流行发生时，这些疗法可以迅速提供给每个人。例如中草药当归和丹参。最近在纽约进行的实验室研究表明，这两种草药都具有强大的细胞因子作用，降低了已知与疟疾和败血症死亡有关的炎症细胞因子的水平。我们的研究旨在仔细研究这些中草药以及其他市售草药提取物和传统草药组合的效果，以发现它们之间的协同作用，可用于治疗严重的流感感染。

Diseases like influenza, commonly called ‘the flu’, produce symptoms such as fever, headaches, lethargy and lack of appetite. What most people don’t realise is that it is not the influenza virus that produces these symptoms, but the body’s immune response to the influenza virus. This immune response comes about because the influenza virus stimulates cells to produce molecules called cytokines, and cytokines have many effects in the body, including causing fever and a lack of appetite. In severe infections like those caused by the influenza virus responsible for the pandemic of 1918, and during “bird ‘flu” (H5N1) infections, people die because the immune response becomes overwhelming. Cytokines produced during these sorts of responses are actually very harmful, even though in small amounts they help to kill the virus and cure the infection. Researchers working in this field have likened these severe responses to a “cytokine storm”. This project focusses on finding alternative therapies such as those used in Chinese medicine to prevent a cytokine storm happening, so that if an influenza pandemic occurs these treatments could be quickly made available to everyone. Examples are the Chinese herbs Angelica sinensis and Salvia miltiorrhiza. Recent laboratory studies in New York have shown that both of these herbs have potent cytokine effects, decreasing levels of an inflammatory cytokine known to be associated with death in both malaria and sepsis. Our study aims to closely examine the effects of these Chinese herbs, as well as other commercially available herbal extracts, and traditional combinations of herbs, to find synergies between them that could be used to treat severe influenza infections.