ArticleAutophagy2021
Electroacupuncture ameliorates beta-amyloid pathology and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer disease via a novel mechanism involving activation of TFEB (transcription factor EB).
Article in Autophagy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 147 citations in OpenAlex.
- The interventional effect of acupuncture on overall cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2026Pooled it
- Functional division of the prefrontal lobe of the brain: coordinate-based neuroimaging meta-analysis.Physical and engineering sciences in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- A bibliometric analysis of acupuncture treatment and cognitive impairment.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of acupuncture on neuroinflammation in animal models of Alzheimer's disease: A preclinical systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Bibliometric review of 1992-2022 publications on acupuncture for cognitive impairment.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Pooled it
- Electroacupuncture for treating the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Association Between Plasma Amyloid-Beta 42 Ratio and Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients Undergoing Major Abdominal Surgery: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Brain and behavior · 2025Trial
- A true response of the brain network during electroacupuncture stimulation at scalp acupoints: An fMRI with simultaneous EAS study.Brain and behavior · 2023Trial
- Efficacy of personalized acupuncture combined with accelerated deep transcranial magnetic stimulation in mild cognitive impairment: A randomized controlled trial.Integrative medicine research · 2026Article
- The Glial Autophagy-Lysosomal-Inflammation Axis in Alzheimer's Disease: a Unifying Mechanistic Framework.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Dysregulation of the TFEB-ATP6V0C axis in microglia exacerbates α-synuclein pathology through impaired lysosomal acidification in Parkinson's disease.Cell death and differentiation · 2026Article
- Bushen Huoxue Acupuncture alleviates alzheimer's disease progression via the E3 ubiquitin ligase SMURF2‑mediated ubiquitination of LAPTM5.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Article
- Aerobic exercise enhances α-tubulin lactylation and neurological recovery after ischemic stroke.Cell & bioscience · 2026Article
- Restoration of Excitation-Inhibition Balance and Improvement of Schizophrenia-like Behavioral Deficits via Electroacupuncture.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Physical exercise in combination with audiovisual stimulation alleviates cognitive and affective impairments in Alzheimer's disease model mice via restoring lysosomal membrane integrity.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Article
- Mechanistic advances in exercise‑mediated regulation of autophagy dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Trends and Research Frontiers in Mammalian Target of Rapamycin and Alzheimer's Disease.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Electroacupuncture reduces amyloid beta accumulation and improves cerebral ischemia-induced cognitive impairment in a N6-methyladenosine-dependent manner.Journal of molecular histology · 2026Article
- Tregs Promote Astrocyte-Neuron Lactate Shuttle via Inhibiting STING Pathway to Improve Neurological Recovery After Ischemic Stroke.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Non-pharmacological strategies for the management of Alzheimer's disease.Dementia & neuropsychologia · 2026Review
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder leading to dementia in the elderly. Unfortunately, no cure for AD is available to date. Increasing evidence has proved the roles of misfolded protein aggregation due to impairment of the macroautophagy/autophagy-lysosomal pathway (ALP) in the pathogenesis of AD, and thus making TFEB (transcription factor EB), which orchestrates ALP, as a promising target for treating AD. As a complementary therapy, acupuncture or electroacupuncture (EA) has been commonly used for treating human diseases. Although the beneficial effects of acupuncture for AD have been primarily studied both pre-clinically and clinically, the real efficacy of acupuncture on AD remains inconclusive and the underlying mechanisms are largely unexplored. In this study, we demonstrated the cognitive-enhancing effect of three-needle EA (TNEA) in an animal model of AD with beta-amyloid (Aβ) pathology (5xFAD). TNEA reduced APP (amyloid beta (A4) precursor protein), C-terminal fragments (CTFs) of APP and Aβ load, and inhibited glial cell activation in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of 5xFAD. Mechanistically, TNEA activated TFEB via inhibiting the AKT-MAPK1-MTORC1 pathway, thus promoting ALP in the brains. Therefore, TNEA represents a promising acupuncture therapy for AD, via a novel mechanism involving TFEB activation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.