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is a severe infection of the whole body caused by sepsis Reaction is fatal.
In a paper published today in the top academic journal " nature", a research team led by Harvard University neurobiology professor Ma Qiufu demonstrated a stimulation "acupoint" to treat sepsis 's experimental method : Researchers found the " Zusanli acupoint " on the hind limbs of mice with sepsis-it is roughly 2 cm below the knee when it is changed to the human body , And then used a weak current to perform acupuncture on it, which finally played an effective anti-inflammatory effect and reduced the mortality of mice .
In response to this research, "Nature" also published a review article, Duke University Department of Anesthesia Professor Luis Ulloa pointed out in the article that electroacupuncture moxibustion ( electroacupuncture) stimulate a specific part,Thereby regulating certain bodily functions and curing diseases belongs to a new type of medical field called "bioelectronic medicine" in recent years.
People can easily think of traditional acupuncture. In this research and some previous related experiments, scientists have also found that there are still many controversies about why electro-acupuncture stimulation at the traditional "acupoint" position is effective, how it works, and whether it is specific. For example, stimulating " Zusanli " with different intensities, or stimulating another " Tianshu acupoint " located in the abdomen with the same intensity, will not have the same effect of inhibiting inflammation.
Researchers pointed out that if electro-acupuncture is to be developed as a reliable, effective and sensitive treatment method, it is a very critical step to clarify the neuron network behind the "acupoints" stimulated by electro-acupuncture.
Professor Ma Qiufu's research team has been committed to discovering the mechanism by which electroacupuncture activates the neural pathway and regulates inflammation since 2017. In this newly published paper, the research team found a specific group of neurons for the first time through mouse experiments, and found that this group of neurons can regulate , vagus nerve-adrenal reflex, so that can stimulate the "foot with electric acupuncture". "Sanli" played a systemic anti-inflammatory effect and found the basis of modern neuroanatomy .
▲Professor Ma Qiufu (picture source: Harvard University official website)
Specifically, the researchers found that when electrical stimulation of the "zusanli" position, a group of sensory neurons that express the Prokr2 protein will be activated. The cell bodies of these sensory neurons are located in the spinal cord, and the extended protrusions belong to the sciatic nerve that innervates the hind limbs, so they can transmit the sensory information of the hind limbs to specific areas of the brain through the spinal cord.
Interestingly, neurons expressing Prokr2 are stimulated with different intensities, which will activate different neural pathways. Under lower intensity stimulation, they will activate the vagus nerve in the nervous system- adrenal gland , and drive the adrenal gland to release catecholamine anti-inflammatory substances. However, if the intensity of electric acupuncture stimulation is too strong, it will activate another group of sympathetic nerve reflexes, but fail to drive the parasympathetic nerve pathway of the vagus nerve-adrenal gland.
▲ Moderately stimulate the "Zusanli" (ST36) in mice to cause the neural network of the whole body anti-inflammatory response: activate the Prokr2 sensory neuron, drive the vagus nerve-adrenal axis (picture source: reference [2] )
The nerve fiber of this type of Prokr neuron has a specific distribution area, that is, provides an explanation for the need for electroacupuncture anti-inflammatory stimulation at specific "acupoints" . In the tissues that wrap the abdominal organs, the researchers did not find such neurons that express Prokr, so it is difficult to stimulate the mouse's abdominal "acupoints" (such as "Tianshu") to cause the same systemic anti-inflammatory response.
In order to verify the role of Prokr2 neurons, the researchers optogenetics and other experimental methods artificially activated the neurons expressing Prokr2 and found that they can simulate the anti-inflammatory effect of electroacupuncture; on the contrary, if this group is specifically destroyed Neurons will prevent electric acupuncture from inhibiting systemic inflammation.
The review article in the journal Nature concluded that these results provide for the first time a molecular marker. Targeting neurons with this molecular marker can design specific stimulation methods that can be used to remotely regulate body functions.
researchers pointed out that they hope that these findings this time can pave the way for optimizing bioelectric stimulation parameters, and in the future can precisely drive different neural pathways to treat specific diseases.Ultimately benefit patients.
Reference:
[1] Shenbin Liu et al., (2021) A neuroanatomical basis for electroacupuncture to drive the vagal– adrenal axis. Nature. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021 -04001-4
[2] Neurons that switch off inflammation. Nature. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02714-0
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