Mechanism of emodin in relieving neuropathic pain by regulating serum metabolism / 中国中药杂志

The present study investigated the effect of emodin on the serum metabolite profiles in the chronic constriction injury(CCI) model by non-target metabolomics and explored its analgesic mechanism. Twenty-four Sprague Dawley(SD) rats were randomly divided into a sham group(S), a CCI group(C), and an emodin group(E). The rats in the emodin group were taken emodin via gavage once a day for fifteen days(50 mg·kg~(-1)) on the first day after the CCI surgery. Mechanical withdrawal threshold(MWT) and thermal withdrawal threshold(TWL) in each group were performed before the CCI surgery and 3,7, 11, and 15 days after surgery. After 15 days, blood samples were collected from the abdominal aorta. The differential metabolites were screened out by non-target metabolomics and analyzed with Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) and ingenuity pathway analysis(IPA). From the third day after CCI surgery, the MWT and TWL values were reduced significantly in both CCI group and emodin group, compared with the sham group(P<0.01). At 15 days post-surgery, the MWT and TWL values in emodin group increased significantly compared with the CCI group(P<0.05). As revealed by non-target metabolomics, 72 differential serum metabolites were screened out from the C-S comparison, including 41 up-regulated and 31 down-regulated ones, while 26 differential serum metabolites from E-C comparison, including 10 up-regulated and 16 down-regulated ones. KEGG analysis showed that the differential metabolites in E-C comparison were enriched in the signaling pathways, such as sphingolipid metabolism, arginine biosynthesis, glycerophospholipid metabolism, and tryptophan metabolism. IPA showed that the differential metabolites were mainly involved in the lipid metabolism-molecular transport-small molecule biochemistry network. In conclusion, emodin can exert an analgesic role via regulating sphingolipid metabolism and arginine biosynthesis.

Effect of scalp acupuncture on glucose metabolism in brain of patients with depression / 中国中西医结合杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effect of scalp acupuncture (SA) on the glucose metabolism in different regions of brain in patients with depression by positron emission computed tomography (PET).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twelve depressive patients were treated by scalp acupuncture on middle line of vertex (MS5), middle line of forehead (MS1) and bilateral lateral line 1 of forehead (MS2), once a day for six days per week, and received PET detection on different region of brain before and after 6 weeks acupuncture treatment. Semiquantitative analysis was used to compare the average values of radioactive count gotten from various brain regions before and after treatment, which could reflect the condition of glucose metabolism at the brain region detected.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>SA could increase the glucose metabolism at bilateral frontal lobes, bilateral parietal lobes, right occipital lobe, right caudate nucleus, right cingulated gyrus and left cerebellum and decrease that at right temporal lobe and bilateral thalamus.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>SA on MS5, MS1 and MS2 in depressive patients could influence the glucose metabolism in various brain regions. It primarily illustrated that the mechanism of SA in treating depression is related with its regulation on cortex-limbic circuitry dysfunction and increase the glucose metabolism in various brain regions.</p>