NERVOUS DISEASES AND KAMPO (JAPANESE HERBAL) MEDICINE - A NEW PARADIGM OF THERAPY AGAINST INTRACTABLE NERVOUS DISEASES

Doctors who learned exclusively western medicine probably understand a priori Kampo (Japanese herbal) medicine merely as a kind of folk medi cine which is not so effective and only a supplementary therapy to wes tern medicine. We have been performing experiments on the mechanism of epileptogenesis mainly at the cellular level for a long time. During the research process, we unexpectedly encountered Kampo (Japanese herb al) medicine, and also performed research on the mechanism of action o f a herbal mixture prescription, saiko-keishi-to-ka-shakuyaku (SK, TJ- 960). Recently we discovered that SK acts to induce the best functiona l state of neurons and consequently intractable nervous symptoms disap pear. SK has protective effects against neuron damage, normalizing eff ects on developmental defects of El mouse neurons, complete preventive effects on stress-induced increased c-Sos and HSP 72 expression, comp lete suppression effects on the Reilly syndrome, complete normalizing effects on expression of the seizure-related gene, PTZ-17, and also, s urprisingly, complete suppression effects on amyloid beta protein-indu ced neuron death. Such wide ranging effects which are preferable to fu nctional maintenance and development of neurons can not be obtained by pure chemical drugs. These findings suggest that we should effectivel y use such ancient herbal prescriptions which show excellent preventiv e effects against neuron damage, enforcing action on natural healing f orces and even regulatory action against adverse expression of genes, at least to prevent intractable nervous diseases, such as epilepsy, Al zheimer's disease and developmental defects of neurons during pregnanc y and after birth. We should also create a future medicine, the 'third medicine', which is situated in a higher dimension than that of conte mporary oriental and western medicines. For this purpose, it is necess ary to perform research on the mechanism of action of Kampo (Japanese herbal) medicine. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.