Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease characterized by the accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and severe functional deficits in the brain. The pathogenesis and treatment of AD remain topics of investigation and significant global socioeconomic issues. The effect of complementary medicine has been investigated in managing AD. Acupuncture, a form of therapy practiced for more than 3000 years, has shown positive effects on several neurological disorders including AD. Animal studies have evaluated the specific utility and neuropathological mechanisms addressed by acupoint manipulation; however, no study has summarized the relationships among different acupoints and their therapeutic effects in the context of AD. Therefore, we reviewed the effects of acupuncture at different acupoints in animal models of AD. In general, acupuncture produced therapeutic benefits in rodent models of AD. Studies demonstrate the utility of GV20 as a valuable acupoint for electroacupuncture and manual acupuncture. GV20 stimulation suppresses Aβ generation, improves glucose metabolism, and attenuates neuropathological features in various disease models. However, a lack of sufficient evidence in preclinical and clinical studies makes these results controversial. Additional studies are required to confirm the exact utility of specific acupoints in clinically managing AD.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is clinically characterized by progressive memory loss and cognitive deficits [1]
In the Aβ1-40 injection model of AD, EA at GV20 and BL23 restored peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) expression and mitigated increases in phosphorylated-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase [24]. These findings suggest that EA stimulation at GV20 and BL23 improves cognitive deficits via inhibition of the Notch pathway [17] and/or upregulation of PPAR-γ [24] in rat models of AD (Table 1)
EA and manual acupuncture (MA) are distinct techniques associated with different therapeutic benefits, they appear to induce similar effects when targeting the same acupoints in rodent models of AD
Summary
AD is a neurodegenerative disorder that is clinically characterized by progressive memory loss and cognitive deficits [1]. Studies suggest that acupuncture has positive effects on cognition in AD and dementia by modulating neuronal signaling pathways These pathways [13, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24] include those related to apoptosis, cell survival, and glucose metabolism and are suggested to mediate the beneficial effects of acupuncture on cognitive and physiological functions in animal models. While several reviews have summarized data gleaned from studies in animal models of AD, no previous review has summarized the relationships between acupuncture stimulation at specific acupoints and their therapeutic effects in AD.
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