Clinical value of ankle flexion and extension exercises combined with a psychological intervention in knee osteoarthritis.

Background: Considering the limited effectiveness of clinical interventions for knee osteoarthritis (KOA), it is necessary to continue to explore appropriate and effective treatment strategies to improve the condition of KOA patients.

Aim: To clarify the influence of ankle flexion and extension exercises combined with a psychological intervention on the psychological status and activities of daily living (ADLs) of patients with KOA.

Methods: The research participants were 116 KOA patients admitted to The First Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine between May 2019 and May 2022, including 54 patients receiving routine treatment, care and psychological intervention (control group) and 62 patients additionally treated with ankle flexion and extension exercises (research group).

Exploring the active ingredients and potential mechanisms of action of sinomenium acutum in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis based on systems biology and network pharmacology.

To investigate and predict the targets and signaling pathways of sinomenium acutum (SA) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) through systems biology and network pharmacology, and to elucidate its possible mechanisms of action. We screened the active ingredients and corresponding target proteins of SA in Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP), Traditional Chinese Medicines Integrated Database (TCMID) and Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular mechANism of Traditional Chinese Medicine (BATMAN); and obtained the targets of rheumatoid arthritis diseases in a database of gene-disease associations (DisGeNET), Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database. The two targets were mapped by Venn diagram and the intersection was taken.

The role of MCP-1-CCR2 ligand-receptor axis in chondrocyte degradation and disease progress in knee osteoarthritis.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common arthritic disease and multifactorial whole-joint disease. Interactions of chemokines and OA is inadequately documented.

Results: In vivo and in vitro studies were conducted to investigate monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) and receptor chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 2 (CCR2) in chondrocyte degradation and cartilage degeneration.