Evaluation of the effectiveness and safety of icariin in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic degenerative disease involving cartilage and surrounding tissues. It causes a huge burden to social and medical resources and seriously affects people's living and working ability. In recent years, people have become increasingly interested in the application of Chinese medicine monomers to treat KOA. Among them, icariin plays an important role in the clinical treatment of KOA. Therefore, to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of icariin in the treatment of KOA, we conducted this study to provide a new basis for the clinical treatment of KOA. METHODS: We propose a systematic search of the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, and China Biomedical databases for all randomized controlled trials examining the use of icariin in the treatment of KOA patients up to October 20, 2021. The screening and data extraction processes will be performed independently by 2 researchers. We will use the Cochrane risk bias assessment tool to evaluate the quality of the studies that met the inclusion criteria. The data will be statistically analyzed using RevMan5.3 software. RESULT: This study will provide high-quality evidence for the effectiveness and safety of icariin in the treatment of KOA. CONCLUSION: The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of icariin in the treatment of KOA and to provide clinicians and patients with new treatment strategies. INPLASY REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY2021110015.

[Comparison between peel and pulp of Aurantii Fructus Immaturus by UPLC fingerprint and multicomponent quantitative analysis].

Twenty batches of Aurantii Fructus Immaturus(AFI) were collected, with their peel and pulp taken as research objects. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography(UPLC) fingerprints of peel and pulp of AFI were established with 17 common peaks in peel and 10 in pulp. Six kinds of flavonoids were identified, i.e., narirutin, naringin, rhoifolin, hesperidin, neohesperidin and nobiletin. The Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of Traditional Chinese Medicine was employed for similarity analysis, which showed that the chromatographic peaks of peel and pulp were basically similar to their respective reference fingerprints, with all similarities greater than 0.90. The similarity between peel and pulp of the same batch of AFI ranged from 0.850 to 0.983. Cluster analysis(CA), principal component analysis(PCA), and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) were conducted on the common peaks of peel and pulp of AFI with SPSS 17.0 and SIMCA 14.1. Combined with the reference fingerprints, these analyses revealed 12 differential components regarding peel and pulp. Further, the content of the 6 flavonoids and synephrine was determined. The proposed method integrating UPLC fingerprint and multicomponent quantitative analysis is applicable to the quality evaluation of AFI. The results provide a certain basis for the scientific connotation about the appearance characteristic of AFI.

Anthraquinones Extract from Morinda angustifolia Roxb. Root Alleviates Hepatic Injury Induced by Carbon Tetrachloride through Inhibition of Hepatic Oxidative Stress.

In Southwestern China, the root of Morinda angustifolia Roxb. has been employed as a folk medicine for treating various types of hepatitis and jaundice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hepatoprotective effects of anthraquinones extract from M. angustifolia root (AEMA) in carbon tetrachloride- (CCl4-) induced liver injury in mice and identify the main bioactive components. Results indicated that AEMA pretreatment could significantly, in a dose-dependent manner, attenuate the increased levels of ALT and AST in mice serum induced by CCl4. At doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg, AEMA exhibited significant suppression of the elevated hepatic levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as marked upregulatory effects on the activities of antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in mice exposed to CCl4. However, AEMA treatment had no effect on the antioxidant enzyme catalase (CAT) or the nonenzymatic antioxidant glutathione (GSH). Furthermore, two anthraquinone constituents were isolated from AEMA and identified as soranjidiol and rubiadin-3-methyl ether. Soranjidiol exhibited similar protective effects to those of AEMA on liver damage induced by CCl4. Overall, our research clearly demonstrated the hepatoprotective effects of the AEMA, and anthraquinones, particularly soranjidiol, should be considered as the main hepatoprotective principles of M. angustifolia. In addition, the underlying mechanism may be, at least in part, related to its antioxidant properties.

Posterior percutaneous full-endoscopic cervical discectomy under local anesthesia for cervical radiculopathy due to soft-disc herniation: a preliminary clinical study.

The authors describe the outcomes of 25 patients, the procedure's surgical steps, and the potential advantages of using the posterior percutaneous full-endoscopic cervical discectomy under local anesthesia. They believe this technique may be a new alternative in the treatment of selected patients with cervical radiculopathy due to soft-disc herniation.