Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2011, Article ID 790784, 6 pages doi:10.1093/ecam/nen060 Original Article A Chinese Herbal Preparation Containing Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Radix Notoginseng and Borneolum Syntheticum Reduces Circulating Adhesion Molecules Kylie A. O’Brien,1, 2 Shanhong Ling,1 Estelle Abbas,1 Aozhi Dai,1 Jiansheng Zhang,3 Wen Cheng Wang,4 Alan Bensoussan,5 Ruizhi Luo,6 Zhi-Xin Guo,6 and Paul A. Komesaroff1 1 Monash University Department of Medicine, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia 2 Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science, Victoria University, P.O. Box 14428, Melbourne, VIC 8001, Australia 3 Division of Chinese Medicine, School of Health Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia 4 Registered Chinese medicine practitioner in private practice, Prahran, VIC, Australia 5 National Institute of Complementary Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia 6 Institute of Research and Development, Tianjin Tasly Pharmaceutical Corporation, Tianjin, China Correspondence should be addressed to Kylie A. O’Brien, kylie.obrien@vu.edu.au Received 13 December 2007; Accepted 21 August 2008 Copyright © 2011 Kylie A. O’Brien et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Circulating adhesion molecules (CAMs), surface proteins expressed in the vascular endothelium, have emerged as risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). CAMs are involved in intercellular communication that are believed to play a role in atherosclerosis. A Chinese medicine, the “Dantonic Pill” (DP) (also known as the “Cardiotonic Pill”), containing three Chinese herbal material medica, Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, Radix Notoginseng and Borneolum Syntheticum, has been used in China for the prevention and management of CVD. Previous laboratory and animal studies have suggested that this preparation reduces both atherogenesis and adhesion molecule expression. A parallel double blind randomized placebo-controlled study was conducted to assess the eﬀects of the DP on three species of CAM (intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and endothelial cell selectin (E-selectin)) in participants with mild-moderate hypercholesterolemia. Secondary endpoints included biochemical and hematological variables and clinical eﬀects. Forty participants were randomized to either treatment or control for 12 weeks. Treatment with DP was associated with a statistically signiﬁcant decrease in ICAM-1 (9% decrease, P = .03) and E-Selectin (15% decrease, P = .004). There was no signiﬁcant change in renal function tests, liver function tests, glucose, lipids or C-reactive protein levels and clinical adverse eﬀects did not diﬀer between the active and the control groups. There were no relevant changes in participants receiving placebo. These results suggest that this herbal medicine may contribute to the development of a novel approach to cardiovascular risk reduction. 1. Introduction Circulating adhesion molecules (CAMs) are proteins ex- pressed by the vascular endothelium involved in intercellular communication that are believed to play a role in the initiation of the atherosclerotic process. There are several families of CAMs, including integrins, cadherins, selectins and immunoglobulin superfamily members [1]. The most important adhesion molecules involved in atherosclerosis appear to be intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM- 1), endothelial cell selectin (E-selectin) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1). Raised levels of ICAM- 1 have been found to be predictive of increased risk of cardiovascular events [2, 3], including in healthy individuals [4]. Levels of P-selectin and E-selectin have been found to predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in healthy women [5], and in patients with stable coronary artery disease plasma levels of E-selectin appear to reﬂect the severity of systemic atherosclerosis [6]. VCAM-1 may be a more speciﬁc marker for advanced atherosclerosis, since it is usually expressed in atherosclerotic plaques [7] and higher levels are associated with increased risk of coronary events