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Adenosine as a probing tool for the mechanistic study of acupuncture treatment
Author(s) -
Wang JiaYou,
Li Hui,
Zhang Lei,
Ma ChunMei,
Wang JiaLu,
Lai XinSheng,
Zhou ShuFeng
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
clinical and experimental pharmacology and physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1440-1681
pISSN - 0305-1870
DOI - 10.1111/1440-1681.12304
Subject(s) - adenosine , acupuncture , medicine , stimulation , sirt2 , in vivo , pharmacology , neuroscience , adenosine receptor , receptor , biology , pathology , gene , biochemistry , alternative medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , sirtuin , agonist , acetylation
Summary To date, acupuncture has been widely used despite a lack of solid clinical evidence in the East and West. However, there are few validated in vitro models for the mechanistic studies of acupuncture. We hypothesized that adenosine could be used as a probing tool in the mechanistic studies of acupuncture because of its critical role in the action of acupuncture. Subsequently, we tested this hypothesis using both in vitro and in vivo experiments. First, we found that adenosine stimulation mimicked the effect of acupuncture on microRNA profiling (including miR‐339, miR‐145 and miR‐451) and protein level (including Sirt2) in nerve growth factor‐induced differentiated PC12 cells. These miRNA and proteins have been found to be regulated by acupuncture treatment in the brain of spontaneously hypertensive rats. Next, we found that adenosine stimulation downregulated miR‐339 expression through adenosine A 1 receptor‐mediated pathway. Finally, we showed that the concentration of adenosine was actually decreased in the brain of spontaneously hypertensive rats after acupuncture treatment at Taichong acupoint. Taken together, these findings suggest that adenosine could be used as a useful probing tool for acupuncture mechanistic studies, while more validation studies are certainly warranted.