Codonopsis laceolata Water Extract Ameliorates Asthma Severity by Inducing Th2 Cells’ and Pulmonary Epithelial Cells’ Apoptosis via NF-κB/COX-2 Pathway

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It is a well-performed study about the potential of Codonopsis laceolata on asthma relief.  The manuscript is well conducted but I would recommend checking the grammar and perhaps improving the images by increasing the size of symbols or numbers.

 

Author Response

It is a well-performed study about the potential of Codonopsis laceolata on asthma relief.  The manuscript is well conducted but I would recommend checking the grammar and perhaps improving the images by increasing the size of symbols or numbers.

Ans) Thank you so much for your generous comments. I checked the grammar and increased the size of symbols or numbers.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript described the application and efficacy of Codonopsis laceolata water extract on the ameliorates of Asthma induced by ovalbumin treatment.  Overall, it scientifically sounds well.  It is an informative review that deserves publication if the following comments have been addressed.

1.      I recommend to refine the Abstract as it currently looks like a part of Materials and Methods.  Perhaps authors should describe more story regarding experimental results.  In addition, the relationship between the bioassay results and NF-kB/COX-2 pathway should be provided in the Abstract.

2.      It will be more informative to readers if authors can provide a figure to systematically describe the story regarding the characteristics and their influences of various cytokines on asthma, as mentioned in page 2 line 61-73.  In addition, the effect of inhibiting Th1 cells differentiation on asthma was described unclearly and it should be provided.

3.      Results shown in Figure 1 demonstrated the function of Codonopsis laceolata in different levels of treatment.  It will be interesting if authors can further apply regression analysis to look into the level effects by statistical perspective.

4.      In Figure 3 B and D, the 150mg/kg group exhibited lowest relative expression folds among all three treatments.  This is interesting and should be discussed.

5.      The Conclusions is the shortest I have seen ever.  Perhaps authors can reformat it by a bulleted list.

6.      Minor: page 11 line 397-403 is really too lengthy as a single sentence, and is better to rewrite it.

Author Response

The manuscript described the application and efficacy of Codonopsis laceolata water extract on the ameliorates of Asthma induced by ovalbumin treatment.  Overall, it scientifically sounds well.  It is an informative review that deserves publication if the following comments have been addressed.

1. I recommend to refine the Abstract as it currently looks like a part of Materials and Methods.  Perhaps authors should describe more story regarding experimental results.  In addition, the relationship between the bioassay results and NF-kB/COX-2 pathway should be provided in the Abstract.

Ans) Thank you so much for the comments and then I amended the Abstract part according to the comments.

 

2. It will be more informative to readers if authors can provide a figure to systematically describe the story regarding the characteristics and their influences of various cytokines on asthma, as mentioned in page 2 line 61-73.  In addition, the effect of inhibiting Th1 cells differentiation on asthma was described unclearly and it should be provided.

Ans) Thank you so much for your informative comment. However, if I add the systematic figure in Introduction part I worry that it doesn’t appear proper format in research article. Now, I am preparing the review paper about asthma I think I can use the systematic figure based on the reviewer’s comment. I appreciate if you cand understand my situation. I described both of the situations about asthma patients and healthy persons for explaining the effect of inhibiting Th1 cells differentiation on asthma.

 

3. Results shown in Figure 1 demonstrated the function of Codonopsis laceolata in different levels of treatment.  It will be interesting if authors can further apply regression analysis to look into the level effects by statistical perspective.

Ans) Thank you so much for your generous comments. I think that now it could be difficult to conduct regression analysis using with this study design but in the further study I willing to consider the study design based on the comments.

 

4. In Figure 3 B and D, the 150 mg/kg group exhibited lowest relative expression folds among all three treatments.  This is interesting and should be discussed.

Ans) Thank you so much for the generous comments and I added the sentences about that in Discussion part.

 

5. The Conclusions is the shortest I have seen ever.  Perhaps authors can reformat it by a bulleted list.

Ans) Thank you so much for the comments and I amended the manuscript format.

 

6. Minor: page 11 line 397-403 is really too lengthy as a single sentence, and is better to rewrite it.

Ans) Thank you so much for the generous comment and based on the comment I rewrote the sentence.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx