Inflammation

which plays a critical role in atherosclerosis and the occurrence of acute cardiovascular events

may be a new target for treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) to reduce residual cardiovascular risk. Recently

Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease (CANTOS)

the largest scale clinical trial that targeted inflammation but not lipids

has affirmed for the first time the inflammatory hypothesis of artherosclerosis and marked the advent of an exciting era of targeting inflammation for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Chinese medicine (CM) is a promising adjuvant therapy for CAD in light of its safety and pleiotropic effect of anti-inflammation

anti-platelet

lipid-regulating

endothelium-protection

microcirculation-improving

etc. In recent years

exploration of anti-inflammatory treatment of CAD with CM has been going on from theory to practice. Taking CANTOS as an example

the design strategy to combine CM and Western medicine to inhibit inflammation were discussed in this paper

which might provide a new perspective for CM intervention on CAD.