The effects of acupuncture (PC6) on chronic mild stress-induced memory loss

The Effectiveness of Zhu Scalp Acupuncture and Body Acupuncture Therapy Methods on Increasing Intellectual Quotients and Emotional Quotients in Pre-School Children

BACKGROUND: Intellectual Quotients (IQ) is the ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment. Emotional Quotients (EQ) includes empathy, expressing and understanding, feeling, controlling anger, independence, adaptability, liking, interpersonal problem-solving ability, perseverance, solidarity, friendliness, and respect; important for a person's success. Acupuncture therapy with Zhu Scalp and body acupuncture methods can be used to increase IQ and EQ in children. AIM: This study was to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy with Zhu Scalp acupuncture and body acupuncture methods on the IQ and EQ of pre-school children. METHODS: The research method is a quantitative pre and post-test design with cross-sectional control with a paired T-test. The research sample was pre-school children in Sukoharjo district with a total of 54 respondents. The data collection instrument is a questionnaire for respondent characteristics, IQ test, and EQ measurement using VSMS (Vineland Social Maturity Scale). RESULTS: The research results showed chitosan 5%; a combination of chitosan 9% and snail seromucous 50% (ratio 1: 1) is a microbicide against MTB TB patient isolates. Snail seromucous was ineffective as a microbicide against MTB tuberculosis patients. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the IQ and EQ levels of children before and after acupuncture therapy using the Zhu Scalp method and body acupuncture with a p-value of 0.000. The results of the N Gain test showed that there are differences in the effectiveness of the Zhu Scalp acupuncture and the body acupuncture method on increasing IQ and EQ in pre-school children. CONCLUSION: The Zhu Scalp acupuncture method is more effective than the body acupuncture method to increase IQ and EQ of pre-school age children, which can be applied in the management of acupuncture therapy to improve child development.  

Neuroprotective Effect of Acupuncture against Single Prolonged Stress-Induced Memory Impairments and Inflammation in Rat Brain via Modulation of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Expression

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental disorder that can appear after exposure to extreme stress. Acupuncture is an alternative therapy that is widely used to treat various neurodegenerative diseases, as well as cognitive and memory impairments. The aim of this study was to examine whether acupuncture stimulation at a specific acupoint (Shenmen or heart meridian, HT7) could improve memory defects caused by single prolonged stress (SPS) in rats. After exposure to SPS, acupuncture on the HT7 acupoint in male rats was performed, once daily for 21 days. We confirmed that this treatment improved fear memory, cognitive function, and spatial memory by modulating the neuroinflammation and expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA in the brain. It also significantly inhibited the activation of proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β and the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 in the brain; it increased the expression of BDNF mRNA in the hippocampus. Our findings provide valuable information concerning the clinical usefulness of acupuncture in the treatment of PTSD.

Enhanced Expectation of External Sensations of the Chest Regulates the Emotional Perception of Fearful Faces

Emotional perception can be shaped by inferences about bodily states. Here, we investigated whether exteroceptive inferences about bodily sensations in the chest area influence the perception of fearful faces. Twenty-two participants received pseudo-electrical acupuncture stimulation at three different acupoints: CV17 (chest), CV23 (chin), and PC6 (left forearm). All stimuli were delivered with corresponding visual cues, and the control condition included visual cues that did not match the stimulated body sites. After the stimulation, the participants were shown images with one of five morphed facial expressions, ranging from 100% fear to 100% disgust, and asked to classify them as fearful or disgusted. Brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging during the facial expression classification task. When the participants expected that they would receive stimulation of the chest (CV17), the ratio of fearful to non-fearful classifications decreased compared to the control condition, and brain activities within the periaqueductal gray and the default mode network decreased when they viewed fearful faces. Our findings suggest that bodily sensations around the chest, but not the other tested body parts, were selectively associated with fear perception and that altering external inferences inhibited the perception of fearful faces.

Verum- versus Sham-Acupuncture on Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in Animal Models: A Preclinical Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common health condition affecting senile people and leads to severe cognitive dysfunctions. Acupuncture has been shown to be a possible alternative natural remedy for AD in some animal studies.

OBJECTIVE

To perform a systematic review to identify the effect of verum-acupuncture compared with sham-acupuncture on learning and memory performance among animal models of AD.

METHODS

Experimental animal studies of treating AD via verum- and sham- acupuncture were searched in nine electronic databases, including Sciverse ScienceDirect, PubMed, Springer, Ebsco Medline, AMED, EMBASE (Elsevier), Scopus (Elsevier), PsycINFO (ProQuest), and OVID from the dates of the databases' inception to June 2019. The Morris water maze test was considered as an outcome measure. The software Revman 5.3 and Stata 16.0 were used to conduct the meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was examined by using I2 statistics. The publication bias was assessed via Begg's test by Stata 16.0.

RESULTS

Twelve studies involving 229 animals met the inclusion criteria. Most of the studies had a moderate quality according to SYRCLE's risk of bias tool for animal studies. The results of the meta-analysis indicated that verum-acupuncture could reduce the escape latency (MD = -12.90, 95% CI (-17.08, -8.71), p < 0.001) and increase the time spent in the original platform quadrant (MD = 7.28, 95% CI (4.23, 10.33), p < 0.001) and frequency of the crossing former platform (MD = 2.01, 95% CI (1.53, 2.50), p < 0.001) compared with the sham-acupuncture.

CONCLUSIONS

Acupuncture is effective in improving cognitive functions in AD animal models, and this benefit is more than just a placebo effect. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm the findings.

Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology: clinical implications

Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology, which was first described in 1936, is the study of the interactions between the psyche, neural and endocrine functions and immune responses. The aim of psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology is to apply medical knowledge to the treatment of different allergic, immune, autoimmune, rheumatic, neoplastic, endocrine, cardiovascular and dental pathologies, among other disorders. Epigenetic factors and major stresses from different types of stimuli acting through distinct pathways and neurotransmitters are highly involved in altering the psychoneuroimmunoendocrine axis, resulting in the emergence of disease. The main purpose of this report is to expand the understanding of psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology and to demonstrate the importance of the above-mentioned interactions in the etiology of multiple pathologies. In this review, a search of the medical literature using PubMed (free access search engine for the Medline database of the National Library of Medicine of the United States) over the years 1936 to 2016 was conducted, and descriptive and experimental studies and reviews of the scientific literature were included.

Effects of electroacupuncture on stress and anxiety-related responses in rats

The aim of this work was to investigate if eletroacupuncture at PC6 would modulate the stress-induced anxiety-like behavior and the level of activation of several brain areas. Rats were distributed in groups: control; submitted to immobilization; submitted to immobilization and eletroacupuncture at PC6 or at the tail. Immobilization increased grooming and decreased stretched attend postures and the time spent in the open arms of the ele-vated plus-maze. Eletroacupuncture at PC6 or tail canceled the effect of immobilization on grooming and attenuated the stretched attend posture. Immobilization increased Fos-immunoreactivity in the prefrontal cortex, medial and central amygdala, paraventricular and dorsomedial nuclei of the hypothalamus, lateral hypothalamus, dentate gyrus, CA1, CA2 and CA3 hippocampal areas. The activation of paraventricular, dorsomedial nuclei and prefrontal cortex by immobilization was canceled by electroacupuncture at PC6 and attenuated by electroacupuncture in the tail. The activation of the other areas was canceled by electroacupuncture in PC6 or the tail. It is concluded that immobilization induced anxiety-like behavior that was moderately attenuated by eletroacupuncture with difference between the stimulation in PC6 or the rat tail. Eletroacupuncture showed specificity concerning to the attenuation of the effects of immobilization in the CNS areas related to the stress response, anxiety and cardiovascular system.

Serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels associate with cognitive improvement in patients with schizophrenia treated with electroacupuncture

Accumulating evidence supports that acupuncture has been successfully used for the treatment of neurological disorders to improve cognitive function. This study was set to evaluate the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA, using two acupoints: Baihui and Shenting) on clinical symptoms, cognitive function and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in patients with schizophrenia. Sixty-one inpatients diagnosed schizophrenia with DSM-IV criteria were recruited. The participants were randomly divided into an experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=31). The patients were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) at baseline and after EA treatment. There were no significant differences in the PANSS scores and serum BDNF levels between the experimental group and the control group, either at baseline or at the end of the 4-week study period. However, the EA treatment appeared to have significant benefits on memory and moderate benefits on executive functions and problem solving. Significant positive correlation was observed between the increase of BDNF levels and memory improvement after EA treatment. Our results indicated that EA treatment could improve cognitive function, and the cognitive benefits positively associate with serum BDNF levels in patients with schizophrenia.

Effects of Acupuncture, RU-486 on the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis in Chronically Stressed Adult Male Rats

We have recently reported that pretreatment with electroacupuncture (EA) at stomach meridian point 36 (St36) prevents the chronic cold-stress increase in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), an action that may be under central control. Given that treatment for stress-related symptoms usually begins after onset of the stress responses, the objectives of the present study were to determine the efficacy of EA St36 on HPA hormones when EA St36 is given after stress was initiated, if the results are long lasting, and if blocking the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) using RU-486 had the same effects as EA St36. Adult male rats were placed in 4 groups of animals, 3 of which were exposed to cold and 1 of which was a nontreatment control group. After exposure to the cold stress, 2 groups were treated with either EA St36 or sham-EA, repeated over 10 days. The increase in ACTH and corticosterone observed in stress-only rats was prevented in EA St36 animals, and the effects remained intact 4 days after withdrawal of EA but continuation of cold stress. When the GR was blocked with RU-486, the efficacy of EA St36 remained unchanged. GR blockade did significantly elevate ACTH, which is not seen with EA St36, suggesting that EA St36 does act centrally. The elevated HPA hormones in stress-only rats were associated with a significant increase in depressive and anxious behavior; this was not observed in the stressed EA St36 animals. The results indicate that EA specifically at St36 vs sham-EA is effective in treating chronic poststress exposure.

Acupuncture Affects Autonomic and Endocrine but Not Behavioural Responses Induced by Startle in Horses

Startle is a fast response elicited by sudden acoustic, tactile, or visual stimuli in a variety of animals and in humans. As the magnitude of startle response can be modulated by external and internal variables, it can be a useful tool to study reaction to stress. Our study evaluated whether acupuncture can change cardiac autonomic modulation (heart rate variability); and behavioural (reactivity) and endocrine (cortisol levels) parameters in response to startle. Brazilian Sport horses (n = 6) were subjected to a model of startle in which an umbrella was abruptly opened near the horse. Before startle, the horses were subjected to a 20-minute session of acupuncture in acupoints GV1, HT7, GV20, and BL52 (ACUP) and in nonpoints (NP) or left undisturbed (CTL). For analysis of the heart rate variability, ultrashort-term (64 s) heart rate series were interpolated (4 Hz) and divided into 256-point segments and the spectra integrated into low (LF; 0.01–0.07 Hz; index of sympathetic modulation) and high (HF; 0.07–0.50 Hz; index of parasympathetic modulation) frequency bands. Acupuncture (ACUP) changed the sympathovagal balance with a shift towards parasympathetic modulation, reducing the prompt startle-induced increase in LF/HF and reducing cortisol levels 30 min after startle. However, acupuncture elicited no changes in behavioural parameters.

Effects of Electroacupuncture on Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress Rats Depression-Like Behavior and Expression of p-ERK/ERK and p-P38/P38

We investigate the antidepressant-like effect and mechanism of electroacupuncture (EA) on a chronic unpredictable mild stress rats depression-like behavior. In our study, depression in rats was induced by unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) and isolation for four weeks. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups: Normal, Model, EA, and Sham EA. EA treatment was administered for two weeks, once a day for five days a week. Two acupoints, Yintang (EX-HN3) and Baihui (GV20), were selected. For sham EA, acupuncture needles were inserted shallowly into the acupoints: EX-HN3 and GV20. No electrostimulator was connected. The antidepressant-like effect of the electroacupuncture treatment was measured by sucrose intake test, open field test, and forced swimming test in rats. The protein levels of phosphorylated extracellular regulated protein kinases (p-ERK1/2)/ERK1/2 and p-P38/P38 in the hippocampus (HP) were examined by Western blot analysis. Our data demonstrate that EA treatment decreased the immobility time of forced swimming test and improved the sucrose solution intake in comparison to unpredictable chronic mild stress and placebo sham control. Electroacupuncture may act on depression by enhancing p-ERK1/2 and p-p38 in the hippocampus.

Acupuncture improves cognitive function: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Acupuncture has been used as a treatment for cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVE

This review assesses clinical evidence for or against acupuncture as a treatment for cognitive impairment. This review also discusses the proposed mechanism(s) that could link acupuncture to improved cognitive function.

METHODS

We searched the literature using PolyUone search from its inception to January 2013, with full text available and language limited to English. Levels of evidence were examined using Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine-Levels of Evidence (March, 2009).

RESULTS

TWELVE STUDIES MET THE INCLUSION CRITERIA: 3 human studies and 9 animal studies. Levels of evidence ranged from level 1b to level 5.

CONCLUSION

Most animal studies demonstrated a positive effect of acupuncture on cognitive impairment. However, the results of human studies were inconsistent. Further high-quality human studies with greater statistical power are needed to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture and an optimal protocol.

Mechanisms underlying the effect of acupuncture on cognitive improvement: a systematic review of animal studies

Acupuncture has been reported to be beneficial in treating cognitive impairment in various pathological conditions. This review describes the effort to understand the signaling pathways that underlie the acupunctural therapeutic effect on cognitive function. We searched the literature in 12 electronic databases from their inception to November 2013, with full text available and language limited to English. Twenty-three studies were identified under the selection criteria. All recruited animal studies demonstrate a significant positive effect of acupuncture on cognitive impairment. Findings suggest acupuncture may improve cognitive function through modulation of signaling pathways involved in neuronal survival and function, specifically, through promoting cholinergic neural transmission, facilitating dopaminergic synaptic transmission, enhancing neurotrophin signaling, suppressing oxidative stress, attenuating apoptosis, regulating glycometabolic enzymes and reducing microglial activation. However, the quality of reviewed studies has room for improvement. Further high-quality animal studies with randomization, blinding and estimation of sample size are needed to strengthen the recognition of group differences.

Research advances in treatment of neurological and psychological diseases by acupuncture at the Acupuncture Meridian Science Research Center

Acupuncture is an ancient therapeutic intervention that can be traced back at least 2100 years and is emerging worldwide as one of the most widely used therapies in the field of complementary and alternative medicine. Due to limitations associated with Western medicine's focus on the treatment of diseases rather than on their causes, interests are shifting to complementary and alternative medicines. The Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center (AMSRC) was established in 2005 to elucidate the neurophysiological mechanisms of acupuncture for neurological diseases based on multidisciplinary research supported by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology. In the AMSRC, resultant research articles have shown that acupuncture can improve neurological and psychological problems, including Parkinson's disease, pain, and depression, in animal models. Basic research studies suggest its effectiveness in treating various problems such as depression, drug addiction, epilepsy, ischemia, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and pain. We strongly believe that these effects, evident from the AMSRC research results, can play leading roles in the use of acupuncture for treating neurological diseases, based on collaboration among various academic fields such as neurophysiology, molecular genetics, and traditional Korean medicine.

The effect of acupuncture on working memory and anxiety

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acupuncture can improve memory and reduce anxiety.

DESIGN, SETTING AND SUBJECTS

A two-group, randomized, single-blind study involving 90 undergraduate university students was conducted from January to December of 2011.

INTERVENTIONS

Subjects completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) form Y-1 (State Anxiety, SA) and Y-2 (Trait Anxiety, TA). Then, each subject lay on a treatment table for 20 minutes. The acupuncture group had needles inserted into select acupoints; control subjects did not. Subjects then completed the STAI form Y-1 again, after which they completed the Automated Operation Span Task (AOSPAN) - a computerized test of working memory.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Performance on the AOSPAN and the STAI scores were the main measures of the outcomes.

RESULTS

The acupuncture group scored 9.5% higher than the control group on the AOSPAN Total Correct Score (65.39 vs. 59.9, p=0.0134), and committed 36% fewer math errors (2.68 vs. 4.22, p=0.0153). Acupuncture subjects also reported lower SA after intervention than control subjects (26.14 vs. 29.63, p=0.0146).

Chronic Treatment with Squid Phosphatidylserine Activates Glucose Uptake and Ameliorates TMT-Induced Cognitive Deficit in Rats via Activation of Cholinergic Systems

The present study examined the effects of squid phosphatidylserine (Squid-PS) on the learning and memory function and the neural activity in rats with TMT-induced memory deficits. The rats were administered saline or squid derived Squid-PS (Squid-PS 50 mg kg(-1), p.o.) daily for 21 days. The cognitive improving efficacy of Squid-PS on the amnesic rats, which was induced by TMT, was investigated by assessing the passive avoidance task and by performing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AchE) immunohistochemistry. 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose and performed a positron emission tomography (PET) scan was also performed. In the passive avoidance test, the control group which were injected with TMT showed a markedly lower latency time than the non-treated normal group (P < 0.05). However, treatment of Squid-PS significantly recovered the impairment of memory compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Consistent with the behavioral data, Squid-PS significantly alleviated the loss of ChAT immunoreactive neurons in the hippocampal CA3 compared to that of the control group (P < 0.01). Also, Squid-PS significantly increased the AchE positive neurons in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3. In the PET analysis, Squid-PS treatment increased the glucose uptake more than twofold in the frontal lobe and the hippocampus (P < 0.05, resp.). These results suggest that Squid-PS may be useful for improving the cognitive function via regulation of cholinergic enzyme activity and neural activity.