Investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of Detumescence Analgesic Plaster on knee osteoarthritis through RNA sequencing technology

In this study, transcriptome sequencing was used to study the mechanism of Detumescence Analgesic Plaster (DAP) in the treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis. We identified the key pathways and key genes for the treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis by transcriptome sequencing of rat cartilage issue, and completed qPCR validation. The results showed that genes such as NDUFA5, NDUFA6, NDUFS6, and COX6A2 were enriched in the oxidative phosphorylation signaling pathway. DAP intervention significantly increased the mRNA levels of NDUFA5, NDUFA6, NDUFS6, COX6A2, and MYL3 in rat cartilage tissue, alleviating damage and injury. This study provides a new idea for the molecular mechanism of Detumescence Analgesic Plaster in the treatment of KOA. Male SD rats without specific pathogen (SPF) were randomly divided into three groups: control group, KOA model group, and anti-inflammatory and analgesic patch group (0.1470 g/kg), with 12 animals in each group. According to previous literature, a KOA model was established in rats. 0.1 mL of a prepared 4% papain solution was extracted and injected into the lateral side of the patellar ligament on days 1, 4, and 7 of the modeling process. The rats were then fed normally and treated externally for 5 weeks. Differential expression genes (DEGs) were analyzed using DESeq2, and gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were performed to identify important pathways. In addition, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify the key signaling pathways of Xiaozhong Zhitong Tie, STRING functional protein association network analysis was used to analyze the interaction network and weighted gene co expression network (WGCN) analysis, and CytoHubba topology was used to screen DAP candidate targets targeting KOA. We conducted qPCR experiments on 5 key core genes and confirmed the accuracy of the analysis results.