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Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent progressive joint disease that still requires an optimal therapeutic approach. Intermittent fasting is an attractive dieting strategy for improving health. Here this study shows that intermittent fasting potently relieves medial meniscus (DMM)‐ or natural aging‐induced osteoarthritic phenotypes. Osteocytes, the most abundant bone cells, secrete excess neuropeptide Y (NPY) during osteoarthritis, and this alteration can be altered by intermittent fasting. Both NPY and the NPY‐abundant culture medium of osteocytes (OCY‐CM) from osteoarthritic mice possess pro‐inflammatory, pro‐osteoclastic, and pro‐neurite outgrowth effects, while OCY‐CM from the intermittent fasting‐treated osteoarthritic mice fails to induce significant stimulatory effects on inflammation, osteoclast formation, and neurite outgrowth. Depletion of osteocyte NPY significantly attenuates DMM‐induced osteoarthritis and abolishes the benefits of intermittent fasting on osteoarthritis. This study suggests that osteocyte NPY is a key contributing factor in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis and intermittent fasting represents a promising nonpharmacological antiosteoarthritis method by targeting osteocyte NPY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To provide evidence that the Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) PSORI-CM01 combined with Western medicine reduces the relapse rate of psoriasis vulgaris (PV), we plan to conduct a large-scale randomized control trial (RCT). In order to improve and perfect the RCT, this pilot study was designed to determine the feasibility and the potential of a modified protocol for the full-scale RCT.Methods: Eligible patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PV) were enrolled into a randomized comparison in which all subjects received topical sequential therapy and PSORI-CM01 or placebo for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the relapse rate. Treatment response was computed from Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), body surface area (BSA), and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). The secondary outcome measures included time to relapse, time to onset, rebound rate, PASI score, pruritus scores on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), BSA, DLQI and SF-36 (short form health survey), and incidence of serious adverse events (SAEs).Results: Six of 7 (86 %) subjects reached the PASI-50 in the CHM group compared with nine of 10 (90 %) in the placebo group during the treatment period. Among the subjects who reached PASI-50, one out of six subjects (17 %) relapsed in the CHM group during the treatment period compared with six out of nine patients in the placebo group (67 %). No subjects met the rebound criteria. Changes to baseline in the PASI scores were not significantly different between the two groups (t = 1.764, P = 0.098).Conclusion: Oral PSORI-CM01 combined with topical sequential treatment showed a smaller recurrence rate (P = 0.118) than placebo combined with the same topical therapy for moderate-to-severe PV in this pilot study.Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( http://www.chictr.org.cn/searchproj.aspx ) ChiCTR-TRC-13003233 ; date of registration: 15 April 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer incidence is rising, and the efficacy of current available anticancer agents is limited by severe dose‐limiting toxicities and drug resistance problems. Nanoparticles are heralded as the next frontier in cancer treatment. Here, a pure physical method is used to efficiently fabricate very small silver particles even approaching the Ångstrom (Ång) dimension. Fructose is used as a dispersant and stabilizer to coat the Ång‐scale silver particles (AgÅPs). Functional and mechanistic studies demonstrate that fructose‐coated AgÅPs (F‐AgÅPs) can enter and accumulate in multiple cultured cancer cell lines to induce apoptotic death, whereas most normal cells are resistant to the efficacious dose of F‐AgÅPs; in vivo, intravenous administration of F‐AgÅPs potently inhibits the growth of pancreatic and lung cancer xenografts in nude mice, without inducing notable toxic effects on the healthy tissues. The results suggest the promising potential of F‐AgÅPs as a potent, safe, and broad‐spectrum agent for the cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to improve the analgesic effect of evodiamine and rutaecarpine, using a microemulsion-based hydrogel (ME-Gel) as the transdermal co-delivery vehicle, and to assess hyaluronic acid as a hydrogel matrix for microemulsion entrapment. A microemulsion was formulated with ethyl oleate as the oil core to improve the solubility of the alkaloids and was loaded into a hyaluronic acid-structured hydrogel. Permeation-enhancing effects of the microemulsion enabled evodiamine and rutaecarpine in ME-Gel to achieve 2.60- and 2.59-fold higher transdermal fluxes compared with hydrogel control ( p < 0.01). The hyaluronic acid hydrogel-containing microemulsion exhibited good skin biocompatibility, whereas effective ME-Gel co-delivery of evodiamine and rutaecarpine through the skin enhanced the analgesic effect in mouse pain models compared with hydrogel. Notably, evodiamine and rutaecarpine administered using ME-Gel effectively down-regulated serum levels of prostaglandin E 2 , interleukin 6, and tumor necrosis factor α in formaldehyde-induced mouse pain models, possibly reflecting the improved transdermal permeability of ME-Gel co-delivered evodiamine and rutaecarpine, particularly with hyaluronic acid as the hydrogel matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]