Acupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) for Experimental Sepsis: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background. Sepsis is a global major health problem with high mortality rates. More effective therapy is needed for treating sepsis. Acupuncture has been used for various diseases, including severe infection, in China for more than 2,000 years. Previous studies reported that acupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) might be effective in treating sepsis, but the efficacy and the quality of evidence remain unclear since there is no systematic review on acupuncture at ST36 for sepsis. Methods. Seven databases were searched from the inception of each database up to May 2019. Ultimately, 54 studies using acupuncture at ST36 for the treatment of experimental sepsis were identified in both English and Chinese literature with systematic review procedures. Results. Acupuncture might be useful in reducing injuries induced by sepsis in cardiac, lung, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal tract, and immune system. Its potential mechanisms for antisepsis might include reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, improving microcirculatory disturbance, and maintaining the immune balance mediated by dopamine. However, the positive findings should be interpreted with caution due to poor methodological quality and publication bias. Conclusion. Acupuncture at ST36 might be a promising complementary strategy for controlling sepsis inflammation, yet further studies are needed.

Effect of Electroacupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) on Sepsis Induced by Cecal Ligation Puncture and Its Relevance to Spleen

“…Also, they showed that signal was transmitted directly to postganglionic cholinergic nerve fibers that formed a network around resident macrophages expressing 7nAChRs and, therefore, modulated immune homeostasis in the gut. To find out potential mechanisms besides CAIP, we reviewed a list of studies about acupuncture at ST36 (ST36) in experimental sepsis [ 39 ]. It is also related to the reduction of oxidative stress, suppression of the TLR4/NF- κ B pathway, and induction of vagus/adrenal medulla/dopamine pathway, indicating that EA at ST36 treated patients in many ways.…”

Is acupuncture effective in the treatment of COVID-19 related symptoms? Based on bioinformatics/network topology strategy

“…COVID-19 is greatly associated with sepsis, implicating most death cases are directly caused by of SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced sepsis in intensive care units (ICU) [ 3 ]. A recent systematic review has revealed that acupuncture might be a promising complementary strategy for controlling sepsis inflammation [ 39 ]. Therefore, C3AR may be a key target of acupuncture against sepsis.…”

Acupuncture modulates immunity in sepsis: Toward a science-based protocol

“…Several lines of evidence published in recent years, from the researches of immunomodulatory mechanisms (for reviews, see, i.g. Tracey, 2002;Ulloa, 2005;Huston et al, 2006;Behrens and Koretzky, 2017;Pavlov et al, 2018;Berlot and Passero, 2019), the experiments of acupuncture in animal models (for a review, see Lai et al, 2020) and in patients of clinical trials (for a review, see Tang et al, 2020), support the antiseptic effect of acupuncture. Such a non-pharmacological and non-invasive approach has attracted the attention of the clinical medicine community and has been advocated by some leading researchers (Ulloa et al, 2017;Pavlov and Tracey, 2017).…”

“…Recent immunotherapy drugs, such as siltuximab and tocilizumab, present hope but are yet to be evaluated and summarized for further development and clinical application. Fortunately, experimental animal studies in recent years have shown that a simple non-pharmacological approach shows the effect of anti-septicemia (for a review, see Lai et al, 2020). That approach is peripheral nerve stimulation done through both electroacupuncture (EA) and manual acupuncture (in short, acupuncture).…”