Research on the Mechanism and Application of Acupuncture Therapy for Asthma: A Review.

Asthma is a high-risk disease based on airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). In this review, we found that there are many studies on clinical therapy for asthma that focus on the efficacy of acupuncture therapy and its mechanisms, including the functional connectivity of different brain regions, with the aid of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), immune responses/cell recognition (innate lymphoid cells and balance of Th1/Th2 and Treg/Th17), intracellular mechanism (autophagy, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and epigenetic alteration), and ligand-receptor/chemical signaling pathway (neurotransmitter, hormone, and small molecules). In this review, we summarized the clinical and experimental evidence for the mechanisms of acupuncture therapy in asthma to offer insights into drug discovery and clinical therapy. Given the paucity of clinical studies on the mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of asthma, this review notably included studies based on animal models to investigate the mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of asthma.

[Effect of electroacupuncture of different acupoints on blood pressure, plasma angiotensin II, aldosterone and atrial natriuretic peptide in spontaneous hypertension rats].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) of different acupoints on blood pressure (BP), plasma angiotensin (Ang) II, aldosterone (ALD) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) of SHR, so as to observe the relative specificity of effects of acupoints. METHODS: A total of 60 SHR were randomly divided into model, Quchi (LI 11), Zusanli (ST 36), Shenmen (HT 7), Jianyu (LI 15) and non-acupoint groups, with 10 cases in each. Other 10 Wistar rats were composed of normal group. EA (2 Hz, 2 mA) was applied to LI 11, ST 36, HT 7, LI 15 and non-acupoint for 30 min, followed by measuring BP with BP-6 system. Plasma Ang II, ALD and ANP contents were assayed by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: Compared with control group and pre-treatment, both systolic pressure (SP) and diastolic pressure (DP) of Quchi (LI 11), Zusanli (ST 36) and Shenmen (HT 7) groups lowered significantly (P<0.05). No significant differences were found in the SP and DP of Jianyu (LI 15) and non-acupoint groups (P>0.05). After EA, the SP of Quchi (LI 11) and Shenmen (HT 7) groups were significantly lower than that of Jianyu (LI 15) and non-acupoint groups (P<0.05); and the DP of Quchi (LI 11), Zusanli (ST 36) and Shenmen (HT 7) groups were markedly lower than that of Jianyu (LI 15) and non-acupoint groups (P<0.05). Compared with normal group, the contents of plasma Ang II and ANP of model group decreased significantly, and plasma ALD level of model group increased remarkably (P<0.05). Compared with model group, plasma AngII levels in Quchi (LI 11), Zusanli (ST 36) and Shenmen (HT 7) groups and ALD in Zusanli (ST 36) and Shenmen (HT 7) groups lowered significantly (P<0.05), and plasma ANP content in Shenmen (HT 7) group increased obviously (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: EA of LI 11, HT 7 and ST 36 can effectively lowered both DP and SP in SHR, which may be closely related to its effects in regulating the contents of Ang II , ALD and ANP.

[Clinical study on the indications of 33 acupoints].

Multi-central randomized controlled method was used to scientifically verify indications of 33 acupoints and provide definite clinical basis for the indications of single acupoint. Of the 52 studies, 40 studies showed that the therapeutic effect in acupuncture observation groups were better than the control group; 11 studies showed similar therapeutic effect of the two groups, and 1 study showed the acupuncture observation group was worse than the control group. Therefore, results indicate that in a certain observation cycle, acupuncture at single acupoint have different effects on diseases.