Alzheimer's disease (AD), also called senile dementia, is a neurodegenerative disease, characterized by progressive memory and cognitive impairment and different degrees of behavior-mental dysfunction. Clinical trials displayed that acupuncture therapy is effective in relieving symptoms of AD patients. In recent years, many experimental studies have been conducted in SAMP8 mice to explore the underlying mechanisms of acupuncture in improving AD. Results showed that acupuncture therapy can intervene the central pathological process of AD in multiple approaches, including reducing formation of cerebral β amyloid protein and promoting its removal, intervening the phosphorylation process of Tau protein, improving mitochondrial and synaptic structure, enhancing autophagy activity, accelerating cerebral blood flow, and increasing the levels of estrogen content, and improving the learning and memory ability, etc.
本文对近年来以快速老化模型P系小鼠(SAMP8小鼠)开展的针刺干预阿尔茨海默病的实验研究进行归纳整理。研究显示, 针刺能够通过干预β-淀粉样蛋白生成和清除、Tau蛋白磷酸化过程, 改善线粒体和突触结构, 增强自噬活性, 提高脑血流量, 提高雌激素含量等多途径、多靶点地干预阿尔茨海默病的病理过程, 改善SAMP8模型小鼠的学习记忆能力。.
Keywords: Acupuncture; Alzheimer’s disease; Biological mechanisms; Review; SAMP8 model mice.