School of Science Division of Life Science 22 Chinese Herbal Medicine for General Health Supervisor: LIANG, Chun / LIFS Student: NG, Cheuk Yan Gloria / BCB Course: UROP1100, Spring UROP2100, Summer This study investigates the anti-insulin resistant effect of four Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) extracts, namely Astragalus propinquus (AP), Ginseng (GS), Glycyrrhiza Uralensis (GU), and Momordica Charantia (MC). The study employs PCR to evaluate the impact of the TCM extracts on insulin-signalling pathways involving Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α), Glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase), and Sirtuin 1(SIRT1), by measuring mRNA expression in insulin-induced HepG2 cells. The study results indicate that the increase in IL-6, TNF-α, and G6Pase, and the decrease in SIRT1, explain insulin resistance, and TCM medication can alleviate the insulin-resistant effect. The findings of this study provide insights into the potential use of TCM extracts for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Chinese Herbal Medicine for General Health Supervisor: LIANG, Chun / LIFS Student: TSANG, Chun Kit / BCB Course: UROP1100, Fall UROP2100, Spring No distinctive antioxidant effect were observed with 0.1mg/mL Astragalus membranaceus or Codnopsis pilosula treated cells based on intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) fluorescent reading using DHE staining. Comparatively metformin demonstrated a strong effect on reducing ROS level which resulted in about 60% reduction when compared to Insulin Resistant (IR) HepG2 cells. However, the lack of antioxidizing effect of membranaceus conflicts with the results of published literature. Further trials may be required to validate the results. Total RNA extraction was performed for reverse transcription to study the possible effect of TCMs on improving IR through SIRT1/LKB1/AMPK pathway. The intended method for the study is to perform qPCR test to analyze the relative level of target genes to determine the hypothesis.
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