Research progress of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of gastric mucosa injury caused by long-term use of low dose aspirin in patients with coronary heart disease

Aspirin is widely used in the treatment and prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). It plays an important role in anti-platelet aggregation by inhibiting the activity of cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1). On the other hand, the decrease of COX-1 activity inhibits the production of prostaglandin (PG) in gastric mucosa, which leads to the decrease of gastric mucosal blood flow and the weakening of mucous barrier. That makes the gastric mucosa more vulnerable to injury. We usually treat gastric mucous injury caused by long-term use of low-dose-aspirin (LDA) with drugs that inhibit gastric acid secretion. However, these drugs cannot improve gastric mucosal blood flow and the effect of gastric mucous barrier. And the long-term use of these drugs can lead to a variety of adverse reactions, such as dyspepsia, osteoporosis, nutritional deficiency and so on. This paper reviews the research progress of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of gastric mucosa injury caused by LDA. It was found that Panax quinquefolius ( Xiyangshen ) saponins, Astragaloside A, Dendrobium officinale ( Tiepishihu ) polysaccharide, Bletilla Striata ( Baiji ), Jinghua Weikang capsule, Danhong injection and other TCM components or preparations can increase the level of PG in gastric mucosa and increase the blood flow of gastric mucosa, so as to improve the effect of gastric mucous barrier. This provides a certain idea for the prevention and treatment of gastric mucosa injury caused by long-term application of LDA in patients with CHD.