The Chinese Medicines of Integrated Therapies Against Rheumatoid Arthritis Retard Osteoporosis

In clinical fights against rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the unique integrated medicine in China involves using biologics of adalimumab, glucocorticoids, and Chinese medicines for better therapeutic effects e.g. anti-inflammation (9.4 days of average hospital stay: 72% reduced C-reactive protein, 71% decreased erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and less side effects e.g. retarded osteoporosis (8.8% RA patients were diagnosed with osteoporosis compared with about 30% onset ratio without Chinese medicines). To uncover the candidate mechanisms of Chinese medicines against RA and osteoporosis, bioinformatics analysis was carried out with hospitalized information, blood tests and microarray data. As a result, three core Chinese medicines identified not only deliver a significant coordinative regulation network against RA inflammation, but also retard osteoporosis with their bioactive compounds, targeted genes/proteins, and genes/proteins involved with RA and osteoporosis.