Objective. This study aims to systematically assess the efficacy and safety of auricular therapy for cancer pain. Methods. A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library databases, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data, and CBM for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Review Manager 5.3 was used for meta-analysis. Results. Of the 275 screened studies, nine RCTs involving 783 patients with cancer pain were systematically reviewed. Compared with drug therapy, auricular therapy plus drug therapy has significant advantages both in the effective rate for pain relief (RR = 1.40; 95% CI 1.22, 1.60; P<0.00001) and adverse effects rate (RR = 0.46; 95% CI 0.37, 0.58; P<0.00001). And the result revealed that auricular acupuncture had superior pain-relieving effects as compared with sham auricular acupuncture (SMD = -1.45; 95% CI -2.80, -0.09; P=0.04). However, the analysis indicated no difference on the effective rate for pain relief between auricular therapy and drug therapy (RR = 1.24; 95% CI 0.71, 2.16; P=0.46). Conclusion. Our meta-analysis indicated that auricular therapy is effective and safe for the treatment of cancer pain, and auricular therapy plus drug therapy is more effective than drug therapy alone, whether in terms of pain relief or adverse reactions. However, the included RCTs had some methodological limitations; future large, rigor, and high-quality RCTs are still needed to confirm the benefits of auricular therapy on cancer pain.

Context: Duck virus hepatitis (DVH) caused by duck hepatitis A virus type 1 (DHAV-1) is an acute and lethal disease of young ducklings. However, there is still no effective drug to treat DVH.Objective: This study assessed the curative effect on DVH of a flavonoid prescription baicalin-linarin-icariin-notoginsenoside R1 (BLIN) as well as the hepatoprotective and antioxidative effects of BLIN.Materials and methods: MTT method was used to test the anti-DHAV-1 ability of BLIN in vitro. We then treated ducklings by BLIN (3 mg per duckling, once a day for 5 days) to evaluate the in vivo efficacy. To study the hepatoprotective and antioxidative roles of BLIN in its curative effect on DVH, we investigated the hepatic injury evaluation biomarkers and the oxidative stress evaluation indices of the ducklings.Results: On duck embryonic hepatocytes, DHAV-1 inhibitory rate of BLIN at 20 μg/mL was 69.3%. The survival rate of ducklings treated by BLIN was about 35.5%, which was significantly higher than that of virus control (0.0%). After the treatment of BLIN, both the hepatic injury and the oxidative stress of infected ducklings alleviated. At the same time, a significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) existed between the hepatic injury indices and the oxidative stress indices.Conclusions: BLIN showed a significant curative effect on DVH. The antioxidative and hepatoprotective effects of BLIN made great contributions to the treatment of DVH. Furthermore, BLIN is expected to be exploited as a new drug for the clinical treatment of DVH.

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Objective. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of acupoint injection for alleviating side effects of chemotherapy in people with cancer. Methods. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library databases, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Date, and CBM were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inception through December 28, 2020. This meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3. Results. A total of 8 RCTs including 557 participants were eligible and included in the meta-analysis. The selected RCTs studied acupoint injection for alleviating side effects of chemotherapy in people with cancer. Statistically significant improvements were observed for the incidence of nausea and vomiting (RR = 0.39; 95% CI 0.26, 0.58; P  < 0.00001), the number of leukocyte (MD = 1.89; 95%CI 0.74, 3.03; P  = 0.001), and the number of platelet (MD = 28.82; 95%CI 19.33, 38.30; P  < 0.00001). Two of these studies suggested that acupoint injection can also reduce some other adverse reactions, which showed a statistical difference (RR = 0.29; 95% CI 0.11, 0.75; P  = 0.01). Conclusion. The analysis indicated that acupoint injection can alleviate side effects of chemotherapy in people with cancer. However, due to the high risk of bias and small sample size in the included studies, the results need to be further confirmed by further large, rigorously designed trials.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of Kang fu yan capsule (KFYC) on phenol mucilage-induced intrauterine adhesion (IUA) in a rat model, and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: An IUA model was established by injecting 0.06 mL of 25 % phenol mucilage into the uterus of female Sprague-Dawley rats. The IUA model rats (n=59) were randomly divided into 5 groups: IUA group, fuke qianjin tablet group (FKQJT, 0.22 mg/kg), and 3 KFYC groups given different doses of the drug i.e. 0.13, 0.39and 1.17 mg/kg. A group of 10 healthy female rats served as control. After 19 days treatment, blood samples were collected for determination of IL-2 and IL-10 by ELISA, while uterine tissues were subjected to histological examination using hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E) and Masson staining. Expressions of Notch1, recombination signal binding protein-JK (RBP-JK), a disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM)-12, ADAM-15, matrix metalloprotein-9 (MMP-9), and inhibitor of NF-κB (IĸB) in uterine tissues were determined using RT-qPCR and western blot analysis. Results: Compared to IUA group, histological results showed reduced inflammatory cell infiltration in rat uterine tissue of KFYC group. Moreover, KFYC significantly reversed uterine fibrosis (p < 0.05). Serum concentrations of IL-2 significantly decreased in KFYC groups (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01), and there was significant increases the serum concentrations of IL-10 in KFYC groups (p < 0.05 or < 0.01), when compared to IUA group. The mRNA and protein expressions of Notch1, RBP-JK, ADAM-12, ADAM-15, MMP-9 were also significantly down-regulated (p < 0.05), while protein expression of IĸB was upregulated in KFYC group, when compared to IUA group. Conclusion: KFYC exerts an anti-IUA effect via amelioration of uterine inflammation and fibrosis, probably via a mechanism involving regulation of Notch1/ADAM pathway.