The success of Western Scientific approaches to medicine, over the last 150 years, can be measured by substantial increases in life expectancy, reductions in infant mortality and the virtual elimination of many infectious diseases accompanied by development of effective management practices for noncommunicable diseases. However, major challenges remain in the form of infectious diseases that evolve resistance to pharmaceuticals rapidly, new diseases, particularly those caused by viruses and effective longterm treatments for chronic, noncommunicable diseases. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can offer complementary treatments based on personalised interventions, informed by knowledge accumulated from empirical observations gathered over centuries of practice, that address the impact of disease on the whole body. We provide examples of both infectious and noncommunicable diseases where the combination of Western Scientific Medicine (WSM) and TCM can benefit patients in terms of the speed and efficacy of recovery or disease management. TCM is a healing skill based on practice, while WSM is scientific, based on experiments. Against this background, an understanding of the mechanisms of action This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The pH-responsive PTX-loaded micelles are promising candidates in developing stimuli triggered drug delivery systems in acidic tumor microenvironments with improved inhibitory effects on tumor metastasis.

Starch biosynthesis and starch granule packaging in cereal endosperms involve a coordinated action of starch biosynthesis enzymes and coordination with other metabolisms. Because directly binding to starch granules, starch granule-associated proteins (SGAPs) are essential to understand the underlying mechanisms, however the information on SGAPs remains largely unknown. Here, we dissected developmentally changed SGAPs from developing rice endosperms from 10 to 20 days after flowering (DAF). Starch granule packaging was not completed at 10 DAF, and was finished in the central endosperm at 15 DAF and in the whole endosperm at 20 DAF. Proteomic analysis with two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry revealed 115 developmentally changed SGAPs, representing 37 unique proteins. 65% of the unique proteins had isoforms. 39% of the identified SGAPs were involved in starch biosynthesis with main functions in polyglucan elongation and granule structure trimming. Almost all proteins involved in starch biosynthesis, amino acid biosynthesis, glycolysis, protein folding, and PPDK pathways increased abundance as the endosperm developed, and were predicted in an interaction network. The network represents an important mechanism to orchestrate carbon partitioning among starch biosynthesis, amino acid biosynthesis and glycolysis for efficient starch and protein storage. These results provide novel insights into mechanisms of starch biosynthesis and its coordination with amino acid metabolisms and glycolysis in cereal endosperms.