Now, a team of scientists led by neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School has actually illuminated the underlying neuroanatomy of acupuncture that triggers a particular signaling path.
In a research study conducted in mice and published October 13, 2021, in Nature, the team determined a subset of neurons that should exist for acupuncture to trigger an anti-inflammatory reaction via this signaling pathway.
The researchers identified that these nerve cells take place only in a particular location of the hindlimb region– hence describing why acupuncture in the hindlimb works, while acupuncture in the abdomen does not.
” This research study discuss among the most basic questions in the acupuncture field: What is the neuroanatomical basis for body area, or acupoint, selectivity?” stated lead private investigator Qiufu Ma, HMS teacher of neurobiology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
One location of particular interest to the research group is the so-called cytokine storm– the rapid release of big amounts of cytokines that regularly drives extreme, systemic inflammation, and can be activated by lots of things, including COVID-19, cancer treatment, or sepsis.
” This exuberant immune action is a significant medical problem with a very high fatality rate of 15 percent to 30 percent,” Ma stated. However, drugs to treat cytokine storm are lacking.
Adapting an ancient technique to treat aberrant inflammation
In current decades, acupuncture has been increasingly welcomed in Western medication as a possible treatment for swelling.
In this technique, acupoints on the bodys surface area are mechanically promoted, setting off nerve signaling that affects the function of other parts of the body, consisting of organs.
In a 2014 study, researchers reported that electroacupuncture, a modern-day variation of standard acupuncture that uses electrical stimulation, might decrease cytokine storm in mice by activating the vagal-adrenal axis– a path where the vagus nerve indicates the adrenal glands to launch dopamine.
In a study released in 2020, Ma and his group discovered that this electroacupuncture effect was region specific: It was reliable when provided in the hindlimb region, but did not have an impact when administered in the stomach region. The team assumed that there might be sensory nerve cells distinct to the hindlimb area accountable for this distinction in reaction.
In their new study, the researchers conducted a series of experiments in mice to examine this hypothesis. First, they identified a little subset of sensory neurons marked by expression of the PROKR2Cre receptor. They figured out that these neurons were 3 to four times more many in the deep fascia tissue of the hindlimb than in the fascia of the abdomen.
Then the team created mice that were missing these sensory nerve cells. They discovered that electroacupuncture in the hindlimb did not trigger the vagal-adrenal axis in these mice. In another experiment, the group used light-based stimulation to directly target these sensory neurons in the deep fascia of the hindlimb.
This stimulation activated the vagal-adrenal axis in a way similar to electroacupuncture. “Basically, the activation of these nerve cells is both enough and needed to activate this vagal-adrenal axis,” Ma stated.
In a final experiment, the researchers explored the distribution of the neurons in the hindlimb. They found that there are significantly more nerve cells in the anterior muscles of the hindlimb than in the posterior muscles, leading to a more powerful reaction to electroacupuncture in the anterior area.
” Based on this nerve fiber circulation, we can nearly precisely predict where electrical stimulation will be effective and where it will not be effective,” Ma explained.
Together, these results supply “the very first concrete, neuroanatomic explanation for acupoint selectivity and specificity,” Ma added. “They tell us the acupuncture parameters, so where to go, how deep to go, how strong the intensity must be.”
He noted that while the research study was performed in mice, the basic company of neurons is likely evolutionarily conserved across mammals, including human beings.
However, an important next action will be scientific screening of electroacupuncture in people with inflammation triggered by real-world infections such as COVID-19. Ma is also interested in exploring other signaling pathways that might be promoted by acupuncture to treat conditions that trigger excessive inflammation..
” We have a lot of hard chronic diseases that still need much better treatments,” he said, such as inflammatory bowel syndrome and arthritis. Another location of need, he added, is excessive immune responses that can be a side result of cancer immunotherapy.
Ma hopes that his research will eventually advance clinical understanding of acupuncture and provide useful details that can be used to enhance and fine-tune the strategy.
Recommendation: “A neuroanatomical basis for electroacupuncture to drive the vagal– adrenal axis” by Shenbin Liu, Zhifu Wang, Yangshuai Su, Lu Qi, Wei Yang, Mingzhou Fu, Xianghong Jing, Yanqing Wang and Qiufu Ma, 13 October 2021, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-021-04001-4.
The work was primarily supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant R01AT010629), and partly supported by Harvard/MIT Joint Research Grants Program in Basic Neuroscience and the Wellcome Trust (grant 200183/Z/15/ Z). For more information on salary support for the researchers, please refer to the paper.
Researchers have discovered neurons required for acupunctures anti-inflammatory action,
Acupuncture is a conventional Chinese technique that has been used for centuries to deal with persistent pain and other illness related to inflammation, yet the clinical basis of the strategy remains badly comprehended.
They identified a little subset of sensory neurons marked by expression of the PROKR2Cre receptor. They identified that these neurons were 3 to four times more numerous in the deep fascia tissue of the hindlimb than in the fascia of the abdomen.
The group produced mice that were missing these sensory nerve cells. They discovered that electroacupuncture in the hindlimb did not trigger the vagal-adrenal axis in these mice. In another experiment, the team utilized light-based stimulation to straight target these sensory nerve cells in the deep fascia of the hindlimb.
