Evidence of Clinical Efficacy and Pharmacological Mechanisms of Resveratrol in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the efficacy and pharmacological mechanisms of resveratrol in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. METHODS: We conducted a thorough exploration of existing randomized controlled trials concerning the treatment of Alzheimer's disease patients using resveratrol, utilizing accessible open databases. Quantitative variables were represented as a standardized mean difference (SMD), accompanied by a 95% confidence interval (CI). Additionally, we examined the potential targets and plausible pathways associated with the impact of resveratrol on Alzheimer's disease using network pharmacology techniques. RESULTS: Our meta-analysis comprised five trials involving 271 AD patients, of whom 139 received resveratrol treatment and 132 received placebo treatment. Compared with placebo therapy, resveratrol treatment resulted in a significant improvement in Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study- Activities of Daily Living (ADAS-ADL) scores (SMD=0.51; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.78) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Aß40 (SMD=0.84; 95% CI, 0.21 to 1.47) and plasma Aß40 levels (SMD=0.43; 95% CI, 0.07 to 0.79). However, the improvement in the resveratrol-treated group compared with the placebo treatment group on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score, CSF Aß42 and plasma Aß42 levels, and brain volume was not significant. There were no noteworthy statistical variances in the occurrence of adverse effects noted between the two groups. The outcomes of network pharmacology divulged that the principal enriched interaction pathway between resveratrol and Alzheimer's disease is primarily concentrated within the PI3K signaling pathways. Resveratrol's potential key targets for the treatment of AD include MAKP1, HRAS, EGFR, and MAPK2K1. CONCLUSION: While having a high safety profile, resveratrol has efficacy in AD patients to a certain extent, and more data are required to validate the efficacy of resveratrol for the treatment of AD in the future. Suppression of the PI3K signaling pathways could hold significant importance in the treatment of AD patients using resveratrol.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the comparative curative effects of warm acupuncture and other traditional Chinese medicines in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is more common in middle-aged and elderly people, and seriously affects the quality of life of those affected. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment of KOA has been widely recognized. In recent years, warm needling acupuncture (WNA) has been used to treat KOA and has achieved good results. However, there is a lack of comparison of the efficacy of WNA and other TCM treatments for KOA. METHODS: We conducted a search for reports of WNA and/or TCM treatment of KOA in English- and Chinese-language databases. The data was retrieved from inception of the database until October 2021. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies, and the network meta-analysis was performed using the software RevMan 5.20. RESULTS: A total of 8 articles met the inclusion criteria, including 399 patients treated with WNA (WNA group), and 396 patients treated with other TCM (TCM group). The results of meta-analysis showed that compared with patients in the TCM group, the effective rate [relative risk (RR)] was 1.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.06 to 1.33, the last follow-up osteoarthritis index [mean difference (MD)] was -6.93, 95% CI: -12.14 to -1.72, and the last follow-up knee pain visual analogue scale (VAS) MD was -1.06, 95% CI: -1.61 to -0.51, which were all statistically significant. However, the difference in daily activities (MD: -4.31, 95% CI: -10.90 to 2.28) was not statistically significant. DISCUSSION: Compared with other TCM treatments for KOA, WNA has better overall patient efficacy. However, further randomized controlled studies are needed to compare WNA and other TCM treatments individually to confirm the efficacy of WNA.