Current development of acupuncture research in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease is an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disease. The etiology and pathogenetic mechanisms that cause PD are still not fully understood. The available treatments to PD are only symptomatic relief. Acupuncture is used to treat many medical conditions for 1000 years in China and has gained wider and increasing acceptance within both public and medical profession because it has been a very safe and well-tolerated treatment. In this chapter, we reviewed relevant laboratory findings regarding acupuncture mechanism on Parkinson's. We showed that acupuncture stimulation in Parkinson's models had generated valuable mechanistic insight of Parkinson's and showed that acupuncture treatment is in fact a neuroprotective therapy that increase the release of various neuroprotective agents such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, and cyclophilin A. In addition, acupuncture therapy slows cell death process and attenuates oxidative stress to dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Further, acupuncture therapy modulates neuronal activity of the basal ganglia output structures. These results suggest that early application of acupuncture therapy to Parkinson's patients may be helpful for the best efficacy of acupuncture treatment. It is hopeful that translation of achievement in acupuncture research in Parkinson's models will maximize the potentials of acupuncture treatment.

Effect and mechanism of acupuncture on Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia diagnosed in the aging population worldwide. The cause of Alzheimer's is still not clear. There is no cure for the disease and current treatments are only symptomatic relieve. The search for new treatment is made ever more urgent due to increasing population aging. Acupuncture has been in practice in China for more than 3000 years and used to treat a wide variety of conditions including cardiovascular and psychiatric diseases, acute, and chronic pain. In this chapter, we review recent development on the effects and mechanisms of acupuncture on Alzheimer's disease. In Alzheimer's animal models, acupuncture stimulation at acupoints enhances cholinergic neurotransmission, trophic factor releasing, reduces apoptotic and oxidative damages, improves synaptic plasticity and decreases the levels of Aß proteins in the hippocampus and relevant brain regions. The biochemical modulations by acupuncture in the brains of Alzheimer's models are correlated with the cognitive improvement. In Alzheimer's patients, functional brain images demonstrated that acupuncture increased in the activity in the temporal lobe and prefrontal lobe which are related to the memory and cognitive function. Although only a few acupuncture clinical studies with a small number of participants are reported, they represent an important step forward in the research of both acupuncture and Alzheimer's. Translation of acupuncture research in animal model studies into the human subjects will undoubtedly enhance acupuncture efficacy in clinical study and treatment which could eventually lead to a safer, well-tolerated and inexpensive form of care for Alzheimer's patients.

Synthesis, physical-chemical characterisation and biological evaluation of novel 2-amido-3-hydroxypyridin-4(1H)-ones: Iron chelators with the potential for treating Alzheimer's disease.

A novel class of 2-amido-3-hydroxypyridin-4-one iron chelators is described. These compounds have been designed to behave as suitable molecular probes which will improve our knowledge of the role of iron in neurodegenerative conditions. Neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD), can be considered as diverse pathological conditions sharing critical metabolic processes such as protein aggregation and oxidative stress. Interestingly, both these metabolic alterations seem to be associated with the involvement of metal ions, including iron. Iron chelation is therefore a potential therapeutic approach. The physico-chemical (pK(a), pFe(3+) and logP) and biological properties (inhibition of iron-containing enzymes) of these chelators have been investigated in order to obtain a suitable profile for the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions. Studies with neuronal cell cultures confirm that the new iron chelators are neuroprotective against ß-amyloid-induced toxicity.