Professor of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research

Division of Medical Biotechnology
Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology
Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Phone: +43 (0)1 40400 - 57840
FAX: +43 (0)1 40400 - 51300

E-mail: yan.ma@meduniwien.ac.at
Homepage: http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/allergens/tcm/

Research Interests
Investigation of Chinese medicinal herbs and herbal formulas addressing the following diseases: (i) effect of TCM herbal treatment on age related diseases (heart failure and ageing), (ii) beneficial effect of TCM treatment during chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancers and (iii) effect of TCM treatment on allergic diseases.

Molecular research in traditional Chinese medicine

Abstract

Our research interests are to establish molecular and cell culture systems for investigations in the field of anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti-allergy effects of Chinese medicinal herbs and herbal formulas.
In the recent past we have investigated the effect of TCM herbal treatment on cardiovascular diseases and a heart failure rat model has been established successfully. The popular traditional Chinese herbal formula Sini Tang (SNT) was used to treat syndromes corresponding to heart failure and myocardial infarction (MI). A modified rat model of MI was employed to evaluate the improvement of early ventricular remodeling and cardiac function by SNT.
We show that the ventricular cavity area of the SNT groups were decreased significantly. SNT inhibited the left ventricle end-systolic dimension and the end-diastole dimension and improved the left ventricular function of the ejection fraction.
SNT decreased the expression of atrial natriuretic peptide levels in the serum and increased the vascular active marker nitric oxide, which limits vascular inflammation. This was confirmed by a reduced expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and toll-like receptors TLR-2 and TLR-4. The collagen volumes of SNT groups were significantly decreased and accompanied by a lower level of transforming growth factor-β1 in myocardial tissue.
Our data indicate that the Chinese herbal remedy SNT has the potential to improve early ventricular remodeling and cardiac function after MI.
In addition, we are interested in elucidating the effect of herbal treatment on the up and down regulation of genes involved in disease response in molecular and cell culture systems using gene chip array technology.

Selected Publications

Liu J, Peter K, Shi D, Zhang L, Dong G, Zhang D, Breiteneder H, Bauer R, Jakowitsch J, Ma Y: Anti-inflammatory effects of the Chinese herbal formula Sini Tang in myocardial infarction rats. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2014 (in press).

Peter K, Schinnerl J, Felsinger S, Brecker L, Bauer R, Breiteneder H, Xu R, Ma Y: A novel concept for detoxification: Complexation between aconitine and liquiritin in a Chinese herbal formula ('Sini Tang'). J Ethnopharmacol. 2013 Jul 24. doi:pii: S0378-8741(13)00511-4. 10.1016/j.jep.2013.07.022.