Efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese herbal medicine combined with HAART in the treatment of HIV/AIDS

Abstract

Background: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of the infectious diseases pandemic in the word. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine, as an alternative and complementary therapy of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), has been put into the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS over 30 years due to its good therapeutic effects and high safety, while there is a lack of evidence-based medicine support. The purpose of this study is to explore the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese herbal medicine combined with HAART for HIV/AIDS patients. Methods: We will search all randomized controlled trials of Chinese herbal medicine combined with HAART in the treatment of HIV/AIDS from electronic databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, China Science and Technology Journal Database and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database from inception to December 31, 2021. Literature screening will be conducted through EndNote software, and data extraction will be processed according to inclusion and exclusion criteria by two independent researchers. We will use Review Manager 5.4 and Stata 16 software for data analysis and publication bias test. Results: This systematic review and meta-analysis will provide a high-quality evidence for the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese herbal medicine combined with HAART in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: The conclusion of this review will provide an objective assessment to evaluate whether Chinese herbal medicine integrated with HAART has the effect of improving the efficiency and depressing the toxicity. Registration number: INPLASY2021110082.

Proteomic investigation and biomarker identification of lung and spleen deficiency syndrome in HIV/AIDS immunological nonresponders

“…For those with AIDS, researchers have tried a variety of treatments, such as human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy ( 27 ), enteral nutritional supplementation ( 28 ), and intestinal gut microbial agents ( 29 ). As an alternative therapy, TCM can improve the efficacy of HAART for HIV/AIDS and has a high safety profile ( 30 ). By analyzing the combined expression of all proteins in an organism, proteomics observes the dynamic changes of proteins through a holistic dimension, which is in line with the holistic concept of TCM ( 31 ).…”

The reservoir of latent HIV

“…Previous studies have found that exosomes can activate latent HIV reservoir cells through various mechanisms, and various substances carried by exosomes play an important role in the occurrence and development of HIV, which has broad application prospects in the clearance of latent HIV reservoir and the treatment of HIV ( Barclay et al., 2017 ; Chandra et al., 2021 ). In addition, clinical research proved that traditional Chinese medicine plays an irreplaceable role in the treatment of HIV ( Li et al., 2020 ; Qian et al., 2021 ). Our study found that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its related components can also activate the latent HIV, providing a new direction for TCM treatment of HIV.…”

Role of diosgenin extracted from Helicteres isora L in suppression of HIV-1 replication: An in vitro preclinical study

“…Additionally, some pyranocoumarins can target several HIV-1 replication steps, and even ensure resistance to HIV mutations [ 9 ]. It has also been demonstrated that Chinese herbal medicines boost the host immune system by increasing the CD4 cell count, hence concluded that ART medications if supplemented with herbal drugs, can delay the worsening of HIV infection [ 10 ]. The plants from the Malvaceae family have been shown to possess antiviral activity against several viruses [ 11 , 12 ].…”