Acupuncture promotes mTOR-independent autophagic clearance of aggregation-prone proteins in mouse brain

Scientific Reports
Tian TianChunhai Fan

Abstract

Acupuncture has historically been practiced to treat medical disorders by mechanically stimulating specific acupoints with fine needles. Despite its well-documented efficacy, its biological basis remains largely elusive. In this study, we found that mechanical stimulation at the acupoint of Yanglingquan (GB34) promoted the autophagic clearance of α-synuclein (α-syn), a well known aggregation-prone protein closely related to Parkinson's disease (PD), in the substantia nigra par compacta (SNpc) of the brain in a PD mouse model. We found the protein clearance arose from the activation of the autophagy-lysosome pathway (ALP) in a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-independent approach. Further, we observed the recovery in the activity of dopaminergic neurons in SNpc, and improvement in the motor function at the behavior level of PD mice. Whereas acupuncture and rapamycin, a chemical mTOR inhibitor, show comparable α-syn clearance and therapeutic effects in the PD mouse model, the latter adopts a distinctly different, mTOR-dependent, autophagy induction process. Due to this fundamental difference, acupuncture may circumvent adverse effects of the rapamycin treatment. The newly discovered connection between acupuncture and autophag...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 1, 2017·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Xiaohong LiYue Tu
Dec 28, 2017·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Dan LuoFeng-Xia Liang
May 9, 2018·Journal of Complementary & Integrative Medicine·Lee Xenakis Blonder
Nov 2, 2018·Current Medicinal Chemistry·Kyoung Sang ChoGyun Jee Song
Sep 18, 2016·Journal of Neuroscience Research·Ambra Del GrossoMarco Cecchini
Oct 13, 2017·Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience·Destiny-Love ManeckaThomas M Durcan
Jun 1, 2018·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Zhilong ZhangYuanqing Yang
Aug 6, 2019·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Hsiang-Chun LaiChing-Liang Hsieh
Sep 24, 2019·Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience·Xiangyu Guo, Tao Ma
Jan 8, 2021·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Chao-Chao YuLi-Hong Kong
Dec 31, 2020·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Ning XiaoQi-Wen Tan
May 18, 2021·Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : ECAM·Teng-I Huang, Ching-Liang Hsieh
Jul 22, 2021·Acupuncture in Medicine : Journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society·Hao LiuXiao-Wei Sun
Dec 12, 2021·Acupuncture in Medicine : Journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society·Hao HongBing-Mei Zhu

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
transmission electron microscopy
protein assay

Software Mentioned

Quantity One
Image J
Graph Pad Prism

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