Abstract
It was reported that acupuncture could treat Alzheimer's disease (AD) with the potential mechanisms remaining unclear. The aim of the study is to explore the effect of the combination stimulus of Hegu (LI4) and Taichong (LR3) on the resting-state brain networks in AD, beyond the default network (DMN). Twenty-eight subjects including 14 AD patients and 14 healthy controls (HCs) matched by age, gender, and educational level were recruited in this study. After the baseline resting-state MRI scans, the manual acupuncture stimulation was performed for 3 minutes, and then, another 10 minutes of resting-state fMRI scans was acquired. In addition to the DMN, five other resting-state networks were identified by independent component analysis (ICA), including left frontal parietal network (lFPN), right frontal parietal network (rFPN), visual network (VN), sensorimotor network (SMN), and auditory network (AN). And the impaired connectivity in the lFPN, rFPN, SMN, and VN was found in AD patients compared with those in HCs. After acupuncture, significantly decreased connectivity in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) of rFPN (P = 0.007) was identified in AD patients. However, reduced connectivity in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) (P = 0.047) and left superior frontal gyrus (SFG) (P = 0.041) of lFPN and some regions of the SMN (the left inferior parietal lobula (P = 0.004), left postcentral gyrus (PoCG) (P = 0.001), right PoCG (P = 0.032), and right MFG (P = 0.010)) and the right MOG of VN (P = 0.003) was indicated in HCs. In addition, after controlling for the effect of acupuncture on HCs, the functional connectivity of the right cerebellum crus I, left IFG, and left angular gyrus (AG) of lFPN showed to be decreased, while the left MFG of IFPN and the right lingual gyrus of VN increased in AD patients. These findings might have some reference values for the interpretation of the combination stimulus of Hegu (LI4) and Taichong (LR3) in AD patients, which could deepen our understanding of the potential mechanisms of acupuncture on AD.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and a progressive neurodegenerative disease, which is characterized by two mainly pathological changes including amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, resulting in neuronal degeneration and loss [1, 2]
We previously found that enhanced functional connectivity (FC) in some regions of the default mode network (DMN) caused by the acupuncture stimulation of Hegu (LI4) and Taichong (LR3) might be associated with improvement of cognitive function in AD patients [14]
There was no significant difference of age and gender between the AD patients and healthy controls (HCs)
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and a progressive neurodegenerative disease, which is characterized by two mainly pathological changes including amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, resulting in neuronal degeneration and loss [1, 2]. Acupuncture, an alternative and complementary treatment of traditional Chinese medicine, to date, has been widely used to ameliorate impairments in neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD patients and rodent models [4]. Previous studies have revealed abnormal large-scale functional brain networks in AD patients, which include the default mode network (DMN) [9], the salience network (SN), frontal parietal network (FPN) [10], visual network (VN) [11], sensorimotor network (SMN) [12], and auditory network (AN) [13]. We previously found that enhanced functional connectivity (FC) in some regions of the DMN caused by the acupuncture stimulation of Hegu (LI4) and Taichong (LR3) might be associated with improvement of cognitive function in AD patients [14]. Besides the DMN, the effect of acupuncture on other large-scale resting-state networks remains unknown in AD
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