Adding Chinese herbal medicine to antibiotic treatment for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Dr Xiao-Yang (Mio) Hu, a Research Fellow based at Aldermoore Health Centre, Southampton, presented this research at the Global-NAMRIP Festival of Early Career Research on 25 June 2019. The poster can be downloaded by following the 'Useful Downloads' link below.
Antibiotics are widely used to treat Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (AECOPD), and many patients require two or more courses of antibiotics to be cured. Treatment with antibiotics (especially longer courses and repeated courses), and admission to hospital, all increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance.
Preliminary research in China has suggested that use of a patent traditional Chinese medicine (PTCM), called "Shufeng Jiedu" (SFJD), when given together with antibiotics to patients with AECOPD, can reduce risk of admission to hospital, and duration of admission.
We hypothesise that SFJD will improve treatment of AECOPD, and will reduce the duration of treatment with antibiotics, the risk and duration of admission to hospital, and the risk of relapse.
This project will enable us:
1) To investigate the antimicrobial properties of Shufeng Jiedu (SFJD) in the lung explant model, specifically (a) effects of SFJD;
2) To assess the feasibility of conducting a full-scale clinical trial of SFJD in combination with antibiotics in patients treated for AECOPD in primary care in the UK;
3) To compile a full dossier on SFJD (and each of its eight component herbs) to enable its registration as a Traditional Medicinal Product in the UK, and to facilitate an application for a clinical trials licence to conduct a full-scale clinical trial in the UK;
4) To establish COPD animal models and in vitro evaluation models with drug-resistant bacterial infections and investigate the antibacterial mechanism of SFJD combined with antibiotics for AECOPD using these models; and
5) To assess the effectiveness of SFJD in combination with antibiotics in inpatients with AECOPD in China, in particular to assess the impact on duration of antibiotic courses and hospitalisation.