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Recently, the official website of Westlake University updated information shows that Ma Qiufu, a tenured professor at Harvard University, has joined Westlake University as a chair professor in the fall of 2022, established a systematic physiology and acupuncture laboratory, and served as the director of
the Systematic Physiology and Bioelectronic Medical Research Center.
In October 2021, Ma Qiufu's team and others published a paper in Nature to achieve a historic breakthrough in acupuncture research, which showed a class of PROKR2-Cre-labeled dorsal root ganglia (DRG) Sensory neurons are essential for low-intensity acupuncture stimulation to activate the vagus-adrenal anti-inflammatory pathway
.
It is particularly noteworthy that according to the somatic distribution characteristics of such nerves, the effect of low-intensity electroacupuncture in different parts can be predicted to stimulate anti-inflammation, thus providing a modern neuroanatomical basis for the relative specificity of acupuncture points.
Professor Ma Qiufu said that the rise of systematic physiology in recent years has provided an opportunity for dialogue between modern science and traditional medicine, and he looks forward to seeking new ideas and breakthroughs in the treatment of chronic diseases with students at Westlake University
。
Ma received his bachelor's degree from Fudan University in 1987 and his Ph.
D.
from UCLA in 1994, and completed postdoctoral training
at Bristol-Myers S&P and Caltech from 1994 to 1998.
He became an assistant professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School in early 1999 and a full professor
in 2011.
Ma Qiufu's laboratory focuses on two research directions: mapping pain pathways and exploring how acupuncture works
.
At Westlake University, Ma Qiufu's laboratory will systematically map somatic sensory-autonomic reflex pathways, explore how nerve signals regulate various immune cells and tissue cells, optimize various physical stimulation parameters including acupuncture to activate specific anti-inflammatory nerve pathways, and seek new ideas and breakthroughs
for the treatment of chronic diseases including pain, enteritis, and brain diseases.
Acupuncture belongs to traditional medicine in China, and as an adjunct therapy for analgesia, it has a long history
in improving and preventing pain recurrence.
One of the core mechanisms of acupuncture to treat diseases is the purpose of remotely regulating body functions by piercing needles into various "acupuncture points" in the body, and meridians are considered to be important transmission carriers
to achieve this remote effect.
Although modern anatomical studies have not yet clarified the existence of a meridian-specific structural basis, it has been revealed that the remote effect of acupuncture stimulation can be achieved by somatic sensory neuro-autonomic reflexes
。 This reflex first activates peripheral sensory nerve fibers located in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) or trigeminal ganglia, and then transmits sensory information to the spinal cord and brain, which in turn activates peripheral autonomic nerves and ultimately regulates
various functions.
Since the 70s of the last century, it has been found that such reflexes are specific
to the somatic region.
In 2020, Professor Ma Qiufu's team of Harvard Medical School published a research paper in Neuron revealed that low-intensity acupuncture stimulates the hind limb acupuncture points of mice (such as Zusanli ST36) can activate the vagus-adrenal anti-inflammatory pathway, while acupuncture stimulates abdominal acupuncture points (e.
g.
, Tianshu ST25) cannot induce this anti-inflammatory pathway
.
The neuroanatomical basis behind this somatic regional specificity (or the relative specificity of acupuncture points) is still unclear
.
On October 13, 2021, Professor Ma Qiufu's team from Harvard Medical School published a title: A neuroanatomical basis for electroacupuncture to drive, a top international academic journal Nature The latest research paper by The Vagal – Adrenal Axis, a historic breakthrough in acupuncture research, is first written by Dr.
Shenbin Liu and Dr.
Zhifu Wang.
The study revealed that a class of PROKR2-Cre-labeled dorsal root ganglion (DRG) sensory neurons is essential for low-intensity acupuncture stimulation to activate the vagus-adrenal anti-inflammatory pathway
.
It is particularly noteworthy that according to the somatic distribution characteristics of such nerves, the effect of low-intensity electroacupuncture in different parts can be predicted to stimulate anti-inflammation, thus providing a modern neuroanatomical basis for the relative specificity of acupuncture points.
First, PROKR2-Cre-labeled myelinated neurons are mainly enriched in DRGs that innervate limb segments, and such neurons specifically innervate deep fascial tissues of the limbs (e.
g.
, periosteum, joint ligaments and myofascia, etc.
), without innervating the epidermal tissue of the skin and the main fascial tissue of the abdomen (such as the peritoneum).
Secondly, in order to study the role of PROKR2-Cre-labeled neurons in acupuncture-induced vagus-adrenal anti-inflammatory pathway, the research team used methods such as cross-genetics to specifically knock out such DRG sensory neurons
.
When such neurons are knocked out, low-intensity acupuncture stimulates the hindlimb acupuncture point ST36 and cannot activate the vagus-adrenal pathway, nor can it inhibit the inflammatory storm induced by LPS (bacterial lipopolysaccharide); The knockout of such neurons did not affect the sympathetic anti-inflammatory pathways
induced by high-intensity stimulation of hindlimb acupoints ST36 and abdominal acupuncture points ST25.
The research team further used cross-inheritance to specifically induce the expression of the photosensitive protein CatCh in PROKR2-Cre-labeled neurons, and specifically activated such sensory nerve fibers
that innervate hindlimb acupoint ST36 with 473nm blue light 。 Studies have found that activation of such nerve fibers can significantly induce the discharge of vagus efferent nerves, and can induce the release of catecholamine neurotransmitters by the adrenal glands in a vagus-dependent manner, inhibit the release of LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines, and significantly improve the survival rate
of animals.
This part of the results almost simulates the anti-inflammatory effect
of low-intensity electroacupuncture on ST36 in the hind limb acupuncture point.
Finally, the researchers accurately verified the structural basis
of anti-inflammatory effects induced by low-intensity electroacupuncture stimulation based on the tissue innervation pattern of PROKR2-Cre-labeled sensory nerve fibers.
In contrast to dense projection in fascial tissue near the tibia of the lower extremities, PROKR2-Cre sensory nerve fibers are rarely
innervated in the muscular tissue of the posterior extremities, including the gastrocnemius muscle of the lower leg and the semitendon muscle of the thigh region.
Low-intensity acupuncture stimulates thisThese sites failed to significantly suppress
LPS-induced inflammation.
Curiously, the parts of the sural and semitendon muscles, which are rarely projected by PROKR2-Cre nerve fibers, are rarely distributed in traditional acupuncture points
.
Further studies found that PROKR2-Cre-labeled sensory neurons also densely innervated deep fascial tissues of the forelimbs (such as the periosteum of the radius), in this case the Sanli point area of the hand (LI10) It was further bilateral low-intensity stimulation by approaching the deep radial nerve branch containing such nerve fibers by the tip of the needle, and it was found that acupuncture stimulation of this acupoint can also significantly inhibit the LPS-induced inflammatory response
through such neurons and vagus-dependent mode.
These studies have shown that there is somatic selectivity (e.
g.
, effective ST36, LI10, and ineffective ST25 acupuncture points) and acupoint specificity for acupuncture stimulation to induce the vagus-adrenal anti-inflammatory pathway (e.
g.
, ST36 with ineffective traditional non-acupuncture points in hindlimb muscles).
The relative specificity of this acupuncture point is related to
the site-specific distribution of PROKR2 nerve fibers.
In addition, acupuncture intensity, depth, and detection results are all important factors
that affect the specificity of acupuncture points.
These findings enrich the modern scientific connotation of body surface stimulation therapy such as acupuncture, and provide an important scientific basis for the clinical optimization of acupuncture stimulation parameters and the induction of different autonomic reflexes to treat specific diseases (such as inflammatory storms).
Link to the paper:
Open reprint, welcome to forward to Moments and WeChat groups
