Effect and mechanism of acupuncture on Alzheimer’s disease: A review

Abstract

With the development trend of an aging society, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has become an urgent problem in the field of medicine worldwide. Cognitive impairment in AD patients leads to a decline in the ability to perform daily living and abnormalities in behavior and personality, causing abnormal psychiatric symptoms, which seriously affect the daily life of patients. Currently, mainly drug therapy is used for AD patients in the clinic, but a large proportion of patients will experience drug efficacy not working, and even some drugs bring severe sleep disorders. Acupuncture, with its unique concept and treatment method, has been validated through a large number of experiments and proved its reliability of acupuncture in the treatment of AD. Many advances have been made in the study of the neurobiological mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of AD, further demonstrating the good efficacy and unique advantages of acupuncture in the treatment of AD. This review first summarizes the pathogenesis of AD and then illustrates the research progress of acupuncture in the treatment of AD, which includes the effect of acupuncture on the changes of biochemical indicators in AD in vivo and the specific mechanism of action to exert the therapeutic effect. Changes in relevant indicators of AD similarly further validate the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment. The clinical and mechanistic studies of acupuncture in the treatment of AD are intensified to fit the need for social development. It is believed that acupuncture will achieve new achievements in the treatment of AD as research progresses.

Visualization of Microcirculation at Acupoints in vivo of Alzheimer’s Disease Animal Model with Photoacoustic Microscope: A Pilot Study

“…The current body of reviews indicated that the combination of acupuncture and medicine yielded more benefits for people with AD in comparison to the use of medication alone [ 15, 23–28 ]. In the realm of animal experimentation, numerous research had been conducted to investigate the presence of acupuncture intervention in AD through diverse mechanisms [ 29 ], including to alterations in synaptic morphology and structure by regulation of some relevance protein expression [ 30, 31 ], mitigation of Aβ deposition [ 32, 33 ] and excessive tau protein phosphorylation [ 34–37 ], inhibition of central nervous system inflammation and neuronal apoptosis [ 38–40 ], and resistance against oxidative stress [ 41, 42 ]. Acupuncture is an intervention based on acupoints, and multiple literature studies on the selection of acupoints for AD acupuncture intervention have found that ST36 ( Zusanli ) and CV12 ( Zhongwan ) acupoints were one of the more commonly used acupoints in AD acupuncture intervention [ 28 ].…”

Comparative efficacy of seven nonpharmacological interventions on global cognition in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment: a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Although ACU interventions have not been extensively studied in meta-analyses of acupuncture, there is growing evidence supporting their cognitive improvement effects. ACU intervention at the acupoints “Baihui,” “Dazhui,” “Shenshu,” and “Zusanli” improved cognitive function, especially learning and memory, by repairing synaptic damage in patients with cerebral ischemia, and exerted neuroprotective effects by modulating the expression of CREB , BDNF , BCL2 , and BAX genes 70 , 71 .…”

Acupuncture and moxibustion therapy for cognitive impairment: the microbiome–gut–brain axis and its role

“…Acupuncture and moxibustion therapy is a therapeutic method with simple operation, is easy to accept under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory, and is characterized by multi-target, multi-pathway, and multi-dimensional effects. In recent years, acupuncture and moxibustion as an alternative treatment in combination with drugs to treat cognitive impairment has been gradually accepted and widely used in a number of basic and clinical studies ( Huang et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2023 ). Acupuncture signals are recognized as a potent form of sensory stimulation that ascends mainly through the spinal ventrolateral funiculus to the brain so as to improve cognitive abilities through the regulation of neuroplasticity ( Zhao, 2008 ; Ji et al, 2021 ).…”