Chinese Patent Medicine Tongxinluo Capsule for Hypertension: A Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials

Abstract

Background. This study was intended to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Tongxinluo capsule for hypertension. Search Strategy. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in the Cochrane Library, The PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese Bio-Medical Literature Database (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journal Database, and Wan-fang Data started from the first of database to October 28, 2013. No language restriction was applied. We included randomized clinical trials testing Tongxinluo capsule against western medicine, Tongxinluo capsule versus placebo, and Tongxinluo capsule combined with western medicine versus western medicine. Study selection, data extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were conducted according to the Cochrane standards. Results. 25 trials with 1958 participants were included. The methodological quality of the included trials was evaluated as generally low. The blood pressure (BP) lowering effect of Tongxinluo capsule plus western medicine was significantly higher than that of western medicine (systolic blood pressure (SBP): −3.87, −5.32 to −2.41, P < 0.00001; and diastolic blood pressure (DBP): −2.72, −4.19 to −1.24, P = 0.0003). The BP also decreased significantly from baseline with Tongxinluo capsule than placebo (SBP: −9.40, −10.90 to −7.90, P < 0.00001; and DBP: −11.80, −12.40 to −11.20, P < 0.00001) or western medicine (SBP: −3.90, −4.93 to −2.87, P < 0.00001; and DBP: −3.70, −3.83 to −3.57, P < 0.00001). 12 trials reported adverse events without details. Conclusions. There is some but weak evidence about the effectiveness of TXL in treating patients with hypertension.

Inhibition of miR-128-3p by Tongxinluo Protects Human Cardiomyocytes from Ischemia/reperfusion Injury via Upregulation of p70s6k1/p-p70s6k1

“…TXL is a traditional Chinese medicine that was originally approved as an anti-angina drug by the CFDA in 1996. Later, the beneficial effects of its chronic use in other diseases such as hypertension (Wang J. et al, 2014 ), cardiac ventricle remodeling (Chen W. et al, 2008 ), diabetes (Chen H. et al, 2008 ; Zhang et al, 2010 ) and stroke (Wu et al, 2007 ) were validated in numerous clinical trials, where severe adverse effects were seldom reported. In other words, TXL is available as a CFDA-approved drug with an acceptable safety profile.…”

“…Its active constituents include peoniflorin, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Rb1, jujuboside A, jujuboside B, isoborneol and borneol (Chen et al, 2009 ). Previous studies demonstrated protective effects of TXL in a number of diseases, such as angina pectoris (Jia and Leung, 2015 ), atherosclerosis (Wu et al, 2015 ), pulmonary hypertension (Wang Y. et al, 2016 ), hypertension (Wang J. et al, 2014 ) and cerebral ischemic infarction (Cai et al, 2016 ). Although, our previous studies proved that TXL could attenuate myocardial reperfusion injury (MIRI) in an endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-related pathway (Cheng et al, 2009 ; Li et al, 2010 ), whether TXL can protect human cardiomyocytes (HCMs) from reperfusion injury remains unknown.…”

Traditional Chinese Medicine for Essential Hypertension: A Clinical Evidence Map

“…Regarding clinical evidence with SRs, a small number of SRs had unclear evidence ( n = 16) [ 40 , 42 , 43 , 45 , 47 – 58 ]. Most of the SRs had a potentially positive effect ( n = 120) [ 7 , 44 , 46 , 59 – 114 ], concentrated in 5–8 score.…”

Tongxinluo promotes axonal plasticity and functional recovery after stroke

“…Tongxinluo (TXL) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine remedy that is composed of extracts from 12 kinds of Chinese medicines in exact proportion. In previous studies, its use has been shown to be beneficial in various neurological diseases [ 17 , 18 ]. Administration of TXL 24 h after cortical infarction was shown to attenuate neuronal loss, promote neurogenesis and angiogenesis in the ipsilateral thalamus, and alleviate neurological impairment after focal cortical infarction in hypertensive rats [ 17 ].…”