Epigenetics in Traditional Chinese Pharmacy: A Bioinformatic Study at Pharmacopoeia Scale

Figure 10

A model of the holistic and long-term therapeutic effect of TCM prescriptions. Patterns of epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation (red) and histone acetylation (green) help maintain the gene expression profile for normal cell functioning. Aberrations in the epigenetic pattern, due to endogenous or exogenous factors, lead to disorders. Compounds in TCMFs, in particular the Monarch, interact with the epigenetics-related proteins to restore the altered epigenetic pattern, curing the disorder. Since the epigenetics-related proteins potentially affect the whole epigenome and the epigenetic pattern, once restored, is passed on to the daughter cells, the holistic (in contrast to reductionist’s single gene or pathway) and long-term effects of TCM prescriptions are realized.