Aucubin alleviates osteoarthritis by inhibiting chondrocyte ferroptosis via regulation of the Keap1/NRF2 pathway
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disorder characterized by chondrocyte dysfunction and progressive cartilage destruction, with ferroptosis emerging as a key contributor to disease pathogenesis. This study investigates the therapeutic potential of Aucubin, a natural iridoid glycoside, in OA treatment through modulation of the Keap1/NRF2 pathway and ferroptosis inhibition. Using an in vitro OA model established by IL-1β treatment of immortalized human chondrocytes, we demonstrate that Aucubin significantly improves cell viability, colony formation capacity, and migratory potential while promoting cell cycle progression. Aucubin also reduces ferroptosis-associated oxidative damage by decreasing MDA, GSSG, Fe 2+ , and ROS levels while increasing GSH content. Ferrostatin-1(Fer-1) ferroptosis inhibitor further supports this result. Molecularly, qPCR and Western blot analyses reveal that Aucubin upregulates NRF2 expression while suppressing Keap1 and modulating the levels of ferroptotic markers. These findings are further corroborated in a surgically induced OA rat model, where Aucubin administration attenuates cartilage degradation, restores Keap1/NRF2 expression, and normalizes ferroptosis-related protein expression. Our preliminary findings suggest that aucubin exerts its chondroprotective effects by inhibiting ferroptosis, at least partially through activation of the Keap1/NRF2 pathway, and may represent a potential therapeutic agent for osteoarthritis.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 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 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 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 source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), 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".