Morphine-induced locomotor response and Fos expression in rats are inhibited by acupuncture

Acupuncture inhibition of methamphetamine-induced behaviors, dopamine release and hyperthermia in the nucleus accumbens: mediation of group II mGluR

Methamphetamine (METH) increases metabolic neuronal activity in the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system and mediates the reinforcing effect. To explore the underlying mechanism of acupuncture intervention in reducing METH-induced behaviors, we investigated the effect of acupuncture on locomotor activity, ultrasonic vocalizations, extracellular DA release in the nucleus accumbens (NAcs) using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry and alterations of brain temperature (an indicator of local brain metabolic activity) produced by METH administration. When acupuncture was applied to HT7, but not TE4, both locomotor activity and 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations were suppressed in METH-treated rats. Acupuncture at HT7 attenuated the enhancement of electrically stimulated DA release in the NAc of METH-treated rats. Systemic injection of METH produced a sustained increase in NAc temperature, which was reversed by the DA D1 receptor antagonist SCH 23390 or acupuncture at HT7. Acupuncture inhibition of METH-induced NAc temperature was prevented by pre-treatment with a group II metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR2/3) antagonist EGLU into the NAc or mimicked by injection of an mGluR2/3 agonist DCG-IV into the NAc. These results suggest that acupuncture reduces extracellular DA release and metabolic neuronal activity in the NAc through activation of mGluR2/3 and suppresses METH-induced affective states and locomotor behavior.

A New Perspective of Acupuncture: The Interaction among Three Networks Leads to Neutralization

Acupuncture has been used to treat multiple medical conditions, but whether the diverse effects of acupuncture are intrinsically linked and how they might be connected have yet to be determined. More and more researches have shown that acupuncture is a kind of nociceptive stimulus, which can cause inflammatory reaction in the sites of acupuncture and then further activate the nerve-endocrine-immune systems to cause the cascade amplification of the acupuncture effect. This review seeks to provide a comprehensive summary of the existing literature concerning the role of "acupoint-meridian-disease network" in various effects of acupuncture and suggest a novel notion that acupuncture may restore homeostasis under different pathological conditions by regulating this network, resulting in the activation of different reaction cascades in response to pathological injury. We think that acupuncture acts on acupoints, first activating the small network of acupoints (Acupoint Network). The information of acupuncture is amplified by cascade, and the nerve endocrine immune system (NEI) is activated through the large network of meridians (Meridian Network) of the body itself. The nerve-endocrine-immune system (NEI) further outputs the effect information to the target organ through multilevel and multisystems and finally acts on the disease network (Disease Network) to produce acupuncture effect.

Study of the effects of controlled morphine administration for treatment of anxiety, depression and cognition impairment in morphine-addicted rats

Background:

Morphine dependency usually results in undesired outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and cognitive alterations. In this study, morphine was used to manage morphine dependence-induced anxiety, depression, and learning and memory disturbances.

Materials and Methods:

Forty rats were divided equally into five groups. Group 1 received saline for 21 days. Groups 2–5 were dependent by increasing administration of morphine (15–45 mg/kg) for 7 days. For the next 14 days, morphine was administered as the following regimen: Group 2: once daily; 45 mg/kg (positive controls), Group 3: the same dose with an increasing interval (6 h longer than the previous intervals each time), Group 4: the same dose with an irregular intervals (12, 24, 36 h intervals interchangeably), and Group 5: decreasing doses once daily (every time 2.5 mg/kg less than the former dosage). On days 22–26, elevated plus maze (EPM), open field test (OFT), forced swim test (FST), and tail suspension test (TST) were performed to investigate anxiety level and depression in animals. Between 17^th and 21^st days, Morris water maze (MWM) was used to evaluate the spatial learning and memory.

Results:

Chronic morphine administration caused depression and anxiety as observed by FST, EPM, and TST and decreased motor activity in OFT and caused impairment in learning and memory performance in MWM. Treatment with our protocol as increasing interval, irregular interval, and decreasing dosage of morphine caused marked reduction in depression, anxiety, and improved cognition performance compared with positive control group; and attenuated motor deficits in morphine-dependent rats, remarkably.

Conclusions:

Change in dosage regimens of morphine can reduce morphine-induced anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairments.

Establishing an animal model for National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) auricular acupuncture protocol

The use of opioids in the treatment of chronic pain has increased dramatically in the past few decades making them one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the US. However, long-term use of opioids is limited by development of tolerance (decreased antinociceptive efficacy) and opioid-induced hyperalgesia - paradoxical sensitization to noxious (hyperalgesia) and non-noxious (allodynia) stimuli. Novel adjunctive therapies are needed to increase the efficacy and prolong the duration of action of opioids in chronic pain treatment. Acupuncture is often used as an adjunct therapy for the treatment of symptoms induced by non-clinical use of opioids. The National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) auricular acupuncture protocol is the most common form of acupuncture treatment for substance abuse. The standardized, easy to use and virtually painless procedure make it an attractive complementary treatment option for patients suffering from opioid-induced adverse effects. Clinical trials designed to test the efficacy of the NADA protocol yielded contradictory results. The mechanism by which NADA acupuncture could serve as a successful treatment remains unknown. Therefore, establishing an animal model of NADA acupuncture can provide a tool for investigating the efficacy and cellular mechanisms of NADA treatment. Previous studies have shown that repeated morphine administration in rodents can produce locomotor sensitization and reduce analgesic potency of a challenge dose of morphine, indicating development of morphine tolerance. Here we show that NADA acupuncture treatment can both reduce morphine-induced locomotor sensitization and prevent the development of morphine tolerance in rats, thus validating a new model for NADA acupuncture studies. Our data provides support for evidence-based use of NADA acupuncture as a new adjunctive approach that can potentially improve the side-effect profile of morphine and other prescription opioids.

Acupuncture therapy for drug addiction

Acupuncture therapy has been used to treat substance abuse. This study aims to review experimental studies examining the effects of acupuncture on addiction. Research and review articles on acupuncture treatment of substance abuse published between January 2000 and September 2014 were searched using the databases ISI Web of Science Core Collection and EBSCO’s MEDLINE Complete. Clinical trial studies on the efficacy of acupuncture therapy for substance abuse were classified according to substance (cocaine, opioid, nicotine, and alcohol), and their treatment protocols, assessments, and findings were examined. A total of 119 studies were identified, of which 85 research articles addressed the efficacy of acupuncture for treating addiction. There were substantial variations in study protocols, particularly regarding treatment duration, frequency of electroacupuncture, duration of stimulation, and choice of acupoints. Contradictory results, intergroup differences, variation in sample sizes, and acupuncture placebo effects made it difficult to evaluate acupuncture effectiveness in drug addiction treatment. This review also identified a lack of rigorous study design, such as control of confounding variables by incorporating sham controls, sufficient sample sizes, reliable assessments, and adequately replicated experiments.

Acupuncture at Waiguan (SJ5) and sham points influences activation of functional brain areas of ischemic stroke patients: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Most studies addressing the specificity of meridians and acupuncture points have focused mainly on the different neural effects of acupuncture at different points in healthy individuals. This study examined the effects of acupuncture on brain function in a pathological context. Sixteen patients with ischemic stroke were randomly assigned to true point group (true acupuncture at right Waiguan (SJ5)) and sham point group (sham acupuncture). Results of functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed activation in right parietal lobe (Brodmann areas 7 and 19), the right temporal lobe (Brodmann area 39), the right limbic lobe (Brodmann area 23) and bilateral occipital lobes (Brodmann area 18). Furthermore, inhibition of bilateral frontal lobes (Brodmann area 4, 6, and 45), right parietal lobe (Brodmann areas 1 and 5) and left temporal lobe (Brodmann area 21) were observed in the true point group. Activation in the precuneus of right parietal lobe (Brodmann area 7) and inhibition of the left superior frontal gyrus (Brodmann area 10) was observed in the sham group. Compared with sham acupuncture, acupuncture at Waiguan in stroke patients inhibited Brodmann area 5 on the healthy side. Results indicated that the altered specificity of sensation-associated cortex (Brodmann area 5) is possibly associated with a central mechanism of acupuncture at Waiguan for stroke patients.

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.

Acupuncture suppresses reinstatement of morphine-seeking behavior induced by a complex cue in rats

Morphine causes physical and psychological dependence for individuals after repeated-use. Above all, our previous study showed that acupuncture attenuated reinstatement of morphine-seeking behavior induced by pharmacological cue. In this study, we investigated whether acupuncture could suppress the reinstatement of morphine-seeking behavior induced by the combination of environmental and pharmacological cues and the possible neuronal involvement. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to self-administer morphine (1.0 mg/kg) for 3 weeks. Following the withdrawal phase (7 days), the effects of acupuncture on reinstatement of morphine-seeking behavior were investigated. For the investigation of neuronal involvement, the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline and the GABAB receptor antagonist SCH 50911 were pre-treated. Morphine-seeking behavior induced by combination of re-exposure to the operant chamber and morphine injection was suppressed perfectly by acupuncture at SI5, but not at the control acupoint LI5 and this effect was blocked by pre-treatment with the GABA receptor antagonists. This study suggests that acupuncture at SI5 can be considered as a predominant therapy for the reinstatement of morphine-seeking behavior in humans.

Endogenous opiates and behavior: 2011

This paper is the thirty-fourth consecutive installment of the annual review of research concerning the endogenous opioid system. It summarizes papers published during 2011 that studied the behavioral effects of molecular, pharmacological and genetic manipulation of opioid peptides, opioid receptors, opioid agonists and opioid antagonists. The particular topics that continue to be covered include the molecular-biochemical effects and neurochemical localization studies of endogenous opioids and their receptors related to behavior (Section 2), and the roles of these opioid peptides and receptors in pain and analgesia (Section 3); stress and social status (Section 4); tolerance and dependence (Section 5); learning and memory (Section 6); eating and drinking (Section 7); alcohol and drugs of abuse (Section 8); sexual activity and hormones, pregnancy, development and endocrinology (Section 9); mental illness and mood (Section 10); seizures and neurologic disorders (Section 11); electrical-related activity and neurophysiology (Section 12); general activity and locomotion (Section 13); gastrointestinal, renal and hepatic functions (Section 14); cardiovascular responses (Section 15); respiration (Section 16); and immunological responses (Section 17).

Acupuncture for the treatment of opiate addiction

Acupuncture is an accepted treatment worldwide for various clinical conditions, and the effects of acupuncture on opiate addiction have been investigated in many clinical trials. The present review systematically analyzed data from randomized clinical trials published in Chinese and English since 1970. We found that the majority agreed on the efficacy of acupuncture as a strategy for the treatment of opiate addiction. However, some of the methods in several included trials have been criticized for their poor quality. This review summarizes the quality of the study design, the types of acupuncture applied, the commonly selected acupoints or sites of the body, the effectiveness of the treatment, and the possible mechanism underlying the effectiveness of acupuncture in these trials.