BACKGROUND: Yi-Jing decoction (YJD), a traditional Chinese medicine prescription, has been reported to be effective for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). However, the underlying mechanisms of YJD on treating PCOS are still unclear. OBJECTIVE: In the present work, the effective ingredients of YJD and their treatment mechanisms on PCOS were systematically analyzed. METHODS: The effective ingredients of YJD and targets of PCOS were selected from public databases. The network pharmacology method was used to analyze the ingredients, potential targets, and pathways of YJD for the treatment of PCOS. RESULTS: One hundred and three active ingredients were identified from YJD, of which 82 were hit by 65 targets associated with PCOS. By constructing the disease-common target-compound network, five ingredients (quercetin, arachidonate, beta-sitosterol, beta-carotene, and cholesterol) were selected out as the key ingredients of YJD, which can interact with the 10 hub genes (VEGFA, AKT1, TP53, ALB, TNF, PIK3CA, IGF1, INS, IL1B, PTEN) against PCOS. These genes are mainly involved in prostate cancer, steroid hormone biosynthesis, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance pathways. In addition, the results of molecular docking showed that the ingredients of YJD have good binding affinity with the hub genes. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrated that the treatment of PCOS by YJD is through regulating the levels of androgen and insulin and improving the inflammatory microenvironment.

Platinum agents, which include cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin, are chemotherapeutic drugs which represent the first-line treatment for different types of solid tumors, such as ovarian, head and neck, testicular, and bladder cancers. Their beneficial effect is limited by the onset of drug resistance and by severe toxicities, involving mainly ototoxicity, neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Recent studies highlighted the supplementation of herbal products, vitamins and minerals with antioxidant properties to prevent and protect from side effects. In particular, the introduction of nutraceuticals associated with chemotherapy has improved the patients' quality of life. However, if from one side, complementary and alternative medicine ameliorates chemotherapeutics-induced toxicities, from the other side it is important to take into consideration the possible interference with drug metabolism. This review aims to consider the current literature focusing on clinical trials that report association between nutraceutical supplementation and platinum-based chemotherapy to prevent toxicities, highlighting both beneficial and side effects.

Over the past decade, electrochemical sensing for the purpose of building wearable point-of-need platforms has been widely investigated by researchers. These wearable platforms have the ability to non-invasively track biomarkers that are clinically relevant and provide a comprehensive evaluation of the user's health. Aptamer based sensing is gaining traction because of its significant advantages. They have properties like long-term stability, resistance to denaturation, and work sensitively. Using electrochemical sensing with aptamer based biorecognition is advantageous because it provides significant benefits like lower detection limits, wide range of operations, and most importantly, ability to detect using a label-free approach. This paper provides a review of the current state-of-the-art in the field of electrochemical aptasensing. This review looks at the significance of detection of biomarkers like glucose, cortisol etc. for the purpose of lifestyle and chronic disease monitoring. Moreover, this review will also provide a comprehensive evaluation of the current challenges and prospects for this field.