Inhibition of miR-199b-5p reduces pathological alterations in osteoarthritis by potentially targeting Fzd6 and Gcnt2.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease with a high prevalence in the elderly population, but our understanding of its mechanisms remains incomplete. Analysis of serum exosomal small RNA sequencing data from clinical patients and gene expression data from OA patient serum and cartilage obtained from the GEO database revealed a common dysregulated miRNA, miR-199b-5p. In vitro cell experiments demonstrated that miR-199b-5p inhibits chondrocyte vitality and promotes extracellular matrix degradation. Conversely, inhibition of miR-199b-5p under inflammatory conditions exhibited protective effects against damage. Local viral injection of miR-199b-5p into mice induced a decrease in pain threshold and OA-like changes. In an OA model, inhibition of miR-199b-5p alleviated the pathological progression of OA. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation identified Gcnt2 and Fzd6 as potential target genes of MiR-199b-5p. Thus, these results indicated that MiR-199b-5p/Gcnt2 and Fzd6 axis might be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of OA.

[Comments on influence of different functional status of the body on clinical effects of acupuncture therapy].

Functional status is an important factor affecting clinical therapeutic effect of acupuncture therapy. Authors of the present article make an analysis on the related descriptions of ancient classical books about the patient's body constitution, age, duration of disease, type of disease or clinical conditions, psychological state, etc. which determine the functional state of patients. Moreover, the authors also make some comments on the results of modern clinical trials and experimental studies. However, till now, the results of many related modern studies were lower in reliability due to unreliable methodology. Fewer clinical trials involve the patient's psychological state, and constitution from the viewpoint of Chinese medicine. Correspondingly, the related experimental studies are fewer. The authors suggest that in the coming days clinical trials should be greatly improved in quality and the mutual interference among the influential factors should be excluded. At the same time, experimental studies on the related biochemical mechanisms should be strengthened.

[Primary anylasis on the methodology and strategies for studying mechanisms of acu-moxibustion by using metabonomics].

Metabonomics is a newly emerging modern technology in the Post-genome era and has been being used widely in the study on modern Chinese medicine. But it have been rarely used in the study on acupuncture therapy. In the present paper, the authors introduce the unique advantages of metabonomics in the systemtic biology and its widespread studying basis in the field of modern Chinese medicine. Metabonomics and Chinese medicine including acupuncturology are of some similar characteristics such as entirety, comprehensiveness and dynamic changes. Moreover, the authors make a primary discussion and strategic analysis on the key issues of researches about sham acupuncture, chrono-acupuncture, mechanisms of acu-moxibustion underlying improvement of clinical severe disorders and various indications problems, regularities of combination of acupoints in different recipes, etc. by using metabonomics.