Integrative Korean medicine treatment for inpatients with osteoarthritis of the knee: An observational study.

The use of integrative Korean medicine treatment (IKMT) for patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) has been reported previously; however, to date, no studies have investigated the long-term prognosis of these patients following IKMT for primary knee OA. We aimed to examine the long-term effects of IKMT in patients diagnosed with primary knee OA and receiving IKMT during hospitalization. This retrospective observational study, complemented by a follow-up survey, included patients with primary knee OA who received IKMT during hospitalization across 7 Korean medicine hospitals. The primary outcome was the Numerical Rating Scale knee-pain score, whereas the secondary outcomes were the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), EuroQol-5 dimension-5 level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L), and Patient Global Impression of Change scores. Patients were evaluated at admission, discharge, and during follow-up. Of the 180 included patients, 81 responded to the survey. Compared with the corresponding values at admission, the Numerical Rating Scale score decreased by 2.44 (2.08-2.81) points at discharge and 1.89 (1.5-2.26) points at follow-up. Additionally, compared with their scores at admission, the WOMAC score decreased by 17.20 (13.68-20.71) points at discharge and 25.74 (22.22-29.26) points at follow-up, whereas the EuroQol-5 dimension-5 level questionnaire score improved by -0.15 (-0.18 to -0.12) points at discharge and -0.12 (-0.15 to -0.09) points at follow-up. The patients expressed high satisfaction with pharmacopuncture (65.4%), acupuncture (54.03%), physical therapy (35.8%), and herbal medicine (34.6%). Regarding Patient Global Impression of Change, 96.30% of the patients reported improvement. IKMT was effective in improving pain, functional disability, and quality of life in patients with primary knee OA. Its effects were maintained throughout the long-term follow-up period, and physical functions continuously improved.

Screening and Evaluation of Active Compounds in Polyphenol Mixtures by a Novel AAPH Offline HPLC Method and Its Application.

In this study, we developed a novel offline high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method based on 2,2'-azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) radicals for antioxidant screening in 20 polyphenolic compounds and used the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity assay to evaluate their antioxidant activity. Compared to the existing offline HPLC methods based on 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), the offline HPLC method based on the AAPH radical is more sensitive. Additionally, we applied this method to Lepechinia meyenii (Walp.) Epling extract and screened out seven antioxidants, caffeic acid, hesperidin, rosmarinic acid, diosmin, methyl rosmarinate, diosmetin, and n-butyl rosmarinate, which are known antioxidants. Therefore, this study provides new insights into the screening of antioxidants in natural extracts.

Development of new tools to study membrane-anchored mammalian Atg8 proteins.

ABBREVIATIONS: A:C autophagic membrane:cytosol; ALS amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; ATG4 autophagy related 4; Atg8 autophagy related 8; BafA1 bafilomycin A1; BNIP3L/Nix BCL2 interacting protein 3 like; CALCOCO2/NDP52 calcium binding and coiled-coil domain 2; EBSS Earle's balanced salt solution; GABARAP GABA type A receptor-associated protein; GST glutathione S transferase; HKO hexa knockout; Kd dissociation constant; LIR LC3-interacting region; MAP1LC3/LC3 microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3; NLS nuclear localization signal/sequence; PE phosphatidylethanolamine; SpHfl1 Schizosaccharomyces pombeorganic solute transmembrane transporter; SQSTM1/p62 SQSTM1/p62; TARDBP/TDP-43 TAR DNA binding protein; TKO triple knockout.

The mixture of Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. and Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. extract produces analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects in a collagen-induced arthritis mouse model.

Pain and inflammation typically manifest in patients with arthritis. It is now widely known that Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb (AP) and Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (SM) exert anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive effects. We have previously reported that the mixture extract (ME) from AP and SM produces antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects in gout arthritis and monoiodoacetate (MIA)-induced arthritis models. In the present study, we assessed the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects on the collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) model. The antinociceptive effects in mice were measured using the von Frey test. ME administered once or for one week (once per day) once, and one-week reduced the pain in a dose-dependent manner (from 50 to 100 mg/kg) in the CIA-induced osteoarthritis (OA) model. ME treatment also reduced tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in plasma and ankle tissues. Furthermore, COX-1, COX-2, NF-κB, TNF-α, and IL-6 expressions were attenuated after ME treatment. In most experiments, the antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects induced by ME treatment were almost equal to or slightly better than those induced by Perna canaliculus (PC) treatment, which was used as a positive control. Our results suggest that ME possesses antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects, indicating its potential as a therapeutic agent for arthritis treatment.

Autophagy pathway upregulation in a human iPSC-derived neuronal model of Cohen syndrome with VPS13B missense mutations.

Significant clinical symptoms of Cohen syndrome (CS), a rare autosomal recessive disorder, include intellectual disability, facial dysmorphism, postnatal microcephaly, retinal dystrophy, and intermittent neutropenia. CS has been associated with mutations in the VPS13B (vacuolar protein sorting 13 homolog B) gene, which regulates vesicle-mediated protein sorting and transport; however, the cellular mechanism underlying CS pathogenesis in patient-derived neurons remains uncertain. This report states that autophagic vacuoles accumulate in CS fibroblasts and the axonal terminals of CS patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (CS iPSC)-derived neurons; additionally, autophagic flux was significantly increased in CS-derived neurons compared to control neurons. VPS13B knockout HeLa cell lines generated using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system showed significant upregulation of autophagic flux, indicating that VSP13B may be associated with autophagy in CS. Transcriptomic analysis focusing on the autophagy pathway revealed that genes associated with autophagosome organization were dysregulated in CS-derived neurons. ATG4C is a mammalian ATG4 paralog and a crucial regulatory component of the autophagosome biogenesis/recycling pathway. ATG4C was significantly upregulated in CS-derived neurons, indicating that autophagy is upregulated in CS neurons. The autophagy pathway in CS neurons may be associated with the pathophysiology exhibited in the neural network of CS patients.

Acute and subchronic toxicity study of nonpolar extract of licorice roots in mice.

Licorice is used as a medicinal plant, and several studies have shown that licorice has beneficial effects. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety of nonpolar licorice extract using toxicity experiments. Nonpolar extract from the root of Glycyrrhiza uralensis (NERG) was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Antioxidant ability was determined by method of TPC and DPPH. Blood pressure was monitored by using blood pressure meter. In the acute study, a single dose (2,000 mg/kg) was orally administered to mice. In the subchronic study, mice were treated with extract at doses (50, 100, 500, and 1,000 mg/kg) for 120 days. Significantly difference was not shown at blood pressure, hematological, and biochemical parameters, and histopathology on mice. The results suggested that at acute and subchronic toxicity, each levels of nonpolar licorice extract administration in experiments did not cause toxicity effects or death on mice.

Application of a bridging ELISA for detection of anti-erythropoietin binding antibodies and a cell-based bioassay for neutralizing antibodies in human sera.

Although erythropoietin (EPO)-related pure red-cell aplasia (PRCA) is a rare disorder, attention still needs to be paid because underline mechanism of EPO immunogenicity is various and controversial. Among several assay systems for screening of anti-EPO binding antibodies (Abs), we adopted and setup the bridging ELISA using streptavidin-coated plate. To test their neutralizing activities, cell-based neutralizing (NT) bioassay was setup. When we analyzed serum samples by using these two assays, we found two positive results in the two samples. In the sample 1, 411.9 ng/ml of anti-EPO Abs were found and neutralizing activity of 36.2% at 1:5 serum dilution was detected. In the sample 2, 40.5 ng/ml of anti-EPO Abs were found and neutralizing activity of 96.7% was detected. Our results indicate that the higher anti-EPO antibody (Ab) level in a serum does not always lead to the stronger neutralizing activity. This report gives crucial consideration to the needs of establishing clear criteria to link various assay parameters with the onset of PRCA and its progression.