YANG's pricking-cupping therapy for knee osteoarthritis: a multi-center randomized controlled trial / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the clinical efficacy of YANG's pricking-cupping therapy for knee osteoar thritis (KOA). Methods This was a multi-center randomized parallel controlled trial. One hundred and seventy one patients with KOA were randomly allocated to a pricking-cupping group (89 cases) and a conventional acu puncture group (82 cases). Neixiyan (EX-LE 4), Dubi (ST 35) and ashi points were selected in the two groups. Patients in the pricking-cupping group were treated with YANG's pricking-cupping therapy; the seven-star needles were used to perform pricking at acupoints, then cupping was used until slight bleeding was observed. Patients in the conventional acupuncture group were treated with semi-standardized filiform needle therapy. The treatment was given for 4 weeks (from a minimum of 5 times to a maximum of 10 times). The follow-up visit was 4 weeks. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the visual analogue scale (VAS) were adopted for the efficacy assessments.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The pain score, stiffness score, physical function score and total score of WOMAC were all reduced after 4-week treatment and during follow-up visit in the two groups (all P<0. 0001). Except that the difference of stiffness score between the two groups was not significant after 4-week treatment (P>0. 05), each score and total score of WOMAC in the pricking-cupping group were lower than those in the conventional acupuncture group after 4-week treatment and during follow-up visit (P<0. 0001, P<0. 01). After 2-week treatment, 4-week treatment and during follow-up visit, the VAS was all reduced compared with that before treatment (all P<0. 0001) ; with the increase of the treatment, the reducing trend of VAS was more significant (P<0. 0001). The scores of VAS in the pricking-cupping group were lower than those in the conventional acupuncture group after 4-week treatment and during follow-up visit (P < 0. 01, P <0. 0001). CONCLUSION The YANG's pricking-cupping and conventional acupuncture therapy can both significantly improve knee joint pain and function in patients with KOA, which are relatively safe. The pricking cupping therapy is superior to conventional acupuncture with the identical selection of acupoints.</p>

Effecst of let-7e on the cell activities of monocytic cell line THP-1 and the possible mechanism / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

Objective To investigate the effects of a microRNA family member , let-7e, on mono-cytic cell line THP-1 with regard to cell apoptosis and cytokine secretion and to analyze the possible mecha -nism.Methods THP-1 cells were transfected with mimic negative control (cy3) and observed with immu-nofluorescence microscopy for the evaluation of transfection rate .The expression of let-7e in THP-1 cells re-spectively transfected with let-7e mimic, mimic negative control, let-7e inhibitor and inhibitor negative con-trol were detected by qRT-PCR.MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis were used to detect the activities and apoptosis of transfected THP-1 cells.Western blot assay was performed to measure the expression of the genes encoding interferon alpha-inducible protein 6( IFI6 ) , enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH 2 ) and caspase -3 that were target genes of let-7e predicted by bioinformatics analysis .THP-1 cells were transfected with let-7e mimic and mimic negative control for 48 h and then stimulated with LPS for 2 h for further detec-tion.The supernatants of cell culture were collected for the detection of secreted cytokines by Human Cyto -kine Array.Results The monocytic THP-1 cells were transfected with mimic negative control with a trans-fection efficiency of about 75%.There were 8.551±0.365, 83.893±15.941, 38.858±2.743 and 0.594± 0.174, 2.427±1.229, 3.053±0.207 fold increases in let-7e expression after the transient transfection of THP-1 cells with let-7e mimic and let-7e inhibitor for 12 h, 24 h and 48 h, respectively.The transfection of let-7e mimic into THP-1 cells enhanced the cell activities and inhibited the apoptosis of the transfected cells . Bioinformatics analysis showed that let-7e bound to the genes encoding EZH 2, IFI6 and caspase-3 with the mirSVR scores of -0.1608,-0.5693 and-0.9423, suggesting them as the predicted target genes of let-7e. The expressions of IFI6, EZH2 and caspase-3 in let-7e mimic transfected THP-1 cells were decreased as in-dicated by Western blot assay .The results of Human Cytokine Array showed that the expression of LPS-in-duced cytokines including CD154, G-CSF, CD54, IL-13, IL-1RA and IL-23 were inhibited in let-7e mimic transfected THP-1 cells. Con clusion Let-7e had an anti-apoptosis effect on monocytic THP-1 cells and in-fluenced the secretion of LPS-induced cytokines in THP-1 cells.Let-7e might regulate the biological function of THP-1 cells through inhibiting the expression of target genes encoding caspase -3, IFI6 and EZH2.