Abstract
The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction pathway plays an important role in the regulation of various diseases, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and takes part in anti-inflammatory effects, analgesic effects, protection against injury, and maintenance of gastrointestinal functions. Electroacupuncture therapy is an external therapy used in traditional Chinese medicine. By adding external electrical stimulation to traditional acupuncture, the stimulus gets doubled and the therapeutic efficacy gets enhanced accordingly. It combines the benefits of both acupuncture and electrical stimulation. In recent years, some studies have explored the molecular mechanisms of MAPK signal pathways involved with electroacupuncture treatment. Based on these recent studies, this article summarizes the mechanisms of MAPK signal transduction pathways involved with electroacupuncture treatment. This adds great value to the studies of molecular mechanisms of electroacupuncture treatment and also provides an effective reference for its clinical use.
Highlights
Electroacupuncture is an emerging therapy that combines acupuncture with electrical stimulation
Multiple electroacupuncture can increase the activity of Ras/Raf/extracellular signalregulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway and the expression of p38MAPK, which indicates that the cumulative effect of electroacupuncture may be associated with the changes in the Ras/Raf/ERK signaling pathway and the expression of p38MAPK to achieve the analgesic effects [21]
MAPK is a type of serine/threonine protein kinase widely found in mammals and can be activated by a series of extracellular signals or stimuli, such as physical stress, inflammatory cytokines, growth factors, and bacterial complexes
Summary
Electroacupuncture is an emerging therapy that combines acupuncture with electrical stimulation. The correlation between electroacupuncture regulation and MAPKrelated signaling pathways is mainly focused on the antiinflammatory and analgesic effects, protection against injury, regulation of gastrointestinal functions, and prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, skin diseases, and knee joint diseases. Most of these researches have focused on experimental animals, and there are few clinical reports regarding this. We reviewed the current relevant literature and analyzed the efficacy and mechanisms of electroacupuncture therapy related to the MAPK signal transduction pathway to help in the clinical treatment (Figure 1 and Table 1)
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