IMR Press / FBE / Volume 4 / Issue 3 / DOI: 10.2741/E420

Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine and cerebral ischemia

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1 Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, China Medical University,91 Hseuh-Shih Road, Taichung City, Taiwan 40402, Republic of China

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2012, 4(3), 809–817; https://doi.org/10.2741/E420
Published: 1 January 2012
Abstract

Stroke is an important cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide but effective therapeutic strategy for the prevention of brain injury in patients with cerebral ischemia is lacking. Although tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) has been used to treat stroke patients, this therapeutic strategy is confronted with ill side effects and is limited to patients within 3 hours of a stroke. Strokemediated cell death is a complex interplay of aberrant events involving excitotoxicity, acidosis, inflammation, oxidative stress, peri-infarct depolarization, and apoptosis. Due to the complexity of the events and the disappointing results from single agent trials, the combination of thrombolytic therapy and effective neural protection therapy may be an alternative strategy for patients with cerebral ischemia. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine has been described in ancient medicine systems as a treatment for various ailments associated with stroke. Recently, there have been reports of its benefits in treating stroke. This review will focus on various traditional Chinese herbal medicines and their neuroprotective effects on cerebral ischemia.

Keywords
Traditional Chinese herbal medicine
Cerebral ischemia
Stroke
Review
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