Effect of electroacupuncture combined with Tuina therapy on gut microbiota in patients with knee osteoarthritis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic condition characterized by joint pain and dysfunction, driven by aging and obesity. Research indicates that the gut microbiota significantly influences KOA, potentially affecting inflammation and disease progression through the gut-joint axis. Traditional treatments like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs offer symptom relief but have adverse effects. Emerging therapies like electroacupuncture (EA) and Tuina (TN) have shown promise in alleviating pain and improving joint function by targeting the gut microbiota. AIM To clarify the efficacy of EA with TN in treating KOA and its effect on gut microbiota regulation. METHODS Sixty patients with KOA were allocated to EA or EA + TN (ET) group (n = 30 each). Seven acupoints were punctured. The ET group received TN after each EA session. Both groups completed 12 sessions. The visual analog scale (VAS) for assessing pain and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) for measuring pain intensity, joint stiffness, and functional capacity were employed to assess clinical outcomes. Pre- and post-treatment fecal specimens underwent 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing to analyze the gut microbiota. RESULTS The ET group showed higher rates of “effective” and “markedly effective” outcomes. The VAS score of the ET group remained significantly lower than that of the EA group (P < 0.001) immediately after treatment and 1 week post-treatment. The total WOMAC score (P < 0.001), pain (P = 0.191), stiffness (P = 0.015), and function scores (P < 0.001) decreased significantly in the ET group post-treatment. The gut microbiota analysis revealed no significant changes in alpha diversity in either group. Beta-diversity analysis indicated distinct patterns in the ET group before and after treatment. Significant changes in microbial abundance were detected in both groups, highlighting variations in Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. CONCLUSION ET outperforms EA alone in improving KOA pain, stiffness, and function, potentially via gut microbiota modulation, intestinal barrier protection, and inflammation reduction.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".