Osteoarthritis characteristic genes and prediction of targeted food-medicine homology traditional Chinese medicine: bioinformatics analysis and kinetic simulation

• Identified GLUT3 and ACKR1 as core characteristic genes for osteoarthritis with high diagnostic efficacy (AUC > 0.8), providing reliable molecular markers for early intervention. • Revealed the key roles of GLUT3 and ACKR1 in glucose metabolism, immune regulation, and inflammatory signaling pathways, elucidating their mechanisms in the osteoarthritis immune microenvironment and metabolic disorders. • Screened and validated seven food-medicine homology traditional Chinese medicines (e.g., Cornus officinalis, Ganoderma lucidum) and their core components stigmasterol and β-sitosterol for multi-target intervention potential, confirmed by molecular docking and dynamics simulations. • Systematically demonstrated the potential of food-medicine homology traditional Chinese medicines to intervene in osteoarthritis pathology through multi-target and multi-pathway mechanisms, offering new insights for targeted therapy.