Globally, cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs) are the leading cause of death, and thus the development of novel strategies for preventing and treating such diseases is in urgent need. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), used for thousands of years in Asia and other regions, has been proven effective in certain disorders. As a long-time medicinal herb in TCM, Ginkgo biloba leaves (GBLs), have been widely used to treat various diseases including CCVDs. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of medicinal herbs in treating these diseases are still unclear. Presently, by incorporating pharmacokinetic prescreening, target fishing, and network analysis, an innovative systems-pharmacology platform was introduced to systematically decipher the pharmacological mechanism of action of GBLs for the treatment of CCVDs. The results show that GBLs exhibit a protective effect on CCVDs probably through regulating multiple pathways and hitting on multiple targets involved in several biological pathways. Our work successfully explains the mechanism of efficiency of GBLs for treating CCVDs and, meanwhile, demonstrates that GDJ, an injection generated from GBLs, could be used as a preventive or therapeutic agent in cerebral ischemia. The approach developed in this work offers a new paradigm for systematically understanding the action mechanisms of herb medicine, which will promote the development and application of TCM.

Theoretical and experimental investigations were conducted to predict particle deposition and layer growth during formation of a dynamic membrane using cross-flow microfiltration. A critical particle size model was developed and solved in radial, circumferential and axial directions by analyzing the forces acting on a single particle. The model accounted for the normal drag, lateral lift, shear-induced and Brownian diffusion forces in the depositional direction, the van der Waals force in the circumferential direction, and the cross-flow drag and van der Waals forces in the axial direction. Cross-flow velocity and feed temperature were selected as representative influencing factors to examine variations of the critical particle sizes with permeate flux. Experiments were then conducted with carbon tubes as the support and zirconium dioxide particles as the coating material to verify the model. Results showed that a dynamic layer with non-uniform thickness along the circumferential direction was formed within the horizontal tube due to gravity. The layer thickness decreased as the cross-flow velocities were increased under a given trans-membrane pressure difference and feed concentration. An appropriately large cross-flow velocity was beneficial to achieve thickness uniformity during formation. The effect of the feed temperature on the critical particle size and layer thickness can be ignored. Comparisons between the theoretical predictions and experimental data of the layer thicknesses displayed good agreements. The effects of trans-membrane pressure differences and feed concentrations were finally examined in the present work.