Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases refer to a battery of medical conditions that affect the survival and function of neurons in the brain, which are mainly presented with progressive loss of cognitive and/or motor function. Acupuncture showed benign effects in improving neurological deficits, especially on movement and cognitive function impairment. Here, we reviewed the therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture at the neural circuit level in movement and cognition disorders, summarizing the influence of acupuncture in the dopaminergic system, glutamatergic system, γ-amino butyric acid-ergic (GABAergic) system, serotonergic system, cholinergic system, and glial cells at the circuit and synaptic levels. These findings can provide targets for clinical treatment and perspectives for further studies.
Keywords:
acupuncture; cognitive impairment; movement disorder; neural circuit; neurodegenerative disease.
Copyright © 2024 Li, Deng, Jiang, Zhu, Zhuo, Du and Meng.
Grants and funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This review was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, National Key Research and Development Program (2018YFC1706001, 2010CB530506); Tianjin Municipal Education Commission (2022BKYZ046); The Science & Technology Development Fund of Tianjin Education Commission for Higher Education (2022KJ170); Scientific research and innovation projects of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (YJSKC-20222002); Open Project of National Clinical Research Center for Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion (NCRCOP2023003). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.