ReviewFrontiers in neuroscience2022
Advancing the Understanding of Acupoint Sensitization and Plasticity Through Cutaneous C-Nociceptors.
Review in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Core acupoint selection strategies and multifactorial analysis for acute musculoskeletal pain.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Acupoint Sensitivity in Health and Disease: A Systematic Review.Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2024Pooled it
- The Effect of Laser Biostimulation at Sensitized Acupoints on Chronic Pelvic Pain and Quality of Life in Women with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Trial
- Efficacy and safety of community-based moxibustion for primary hypertension: A randomized controlled trial with patient preference arms.Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2023Trial
- CHRNA3⁺ nociceptors prime the cutaneous sensory interface to enhance electroacupuncture analgesia.Chinese medicine · 2026Article
- Proteomics and Metabolomics-Based Investigation of Local Microenvironmental Changes in Sensitized Acupoint Compared to Non-Sensitized Point Among Patients with Chronic Atrophic Gastritis: A Cross-Sectional Study Protocol.Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- A systematic review of computer-aided acupoint localization.iScience · 2025Article
- Electroacupuncture of Guanyuan (CV4) Acupoint Improved Pelvic Inflammatory Disease Pain by Inhibiting Neuroinflammation and Sympathetic Activity.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2025Article
- Skin-Brain Axis: neural pathways in acupuncture treatment.Chinese medicine · 2025Review
- Inflammatory pain and electroacupuncture: how the P2X3 receptor can help modulate inflammation-a review of current literature.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2025Review
- Article
- Efficacy of Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation on Modulating Upper Extremity Sympathetic Skin Response in Alleviating Cancer Survivors With Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Propensity Score-Matched Cohort Study.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- Article
- Exploratory Study of Biomechanical Properties and Pain Sensitivity at Back-Shu Points.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Anatomical Exploration of the KI1 Acupoint: Implications for Medial and Lateral Plantar Nerve Stimulation.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Deep electroacupuncture of neurogenic spots attenuates immobilization stress-induced acute hypertension in rats.Integrative medicine research · 2024Article
- Neural circuit mechanisms of acupuncture effect: where are we now?Frontiers in neurology · 2024Review
- Article
- Sympathetic-Sensory Coupling as a Potential Mechanism for Acupoints Sensitization.Journal of pain research · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Acupoint is the key area for needling treatment, but its physiology is not yet understood. Nociceptors, one of the responders in acupoints, are responsible for acupuncture manipulation and delivering acupuncture signals to the spinal or supraspinal level. Recent evidence has shown that various diseases led to sensory hypersensitivity and functional plasticity in sensitized acupoints, namely, acupoint sensitization. Neurogenic inflammation is the predominant pathological characteristic for sensitized acupoints; however, the underlying mechanism in acupoint sensitization remains unclear. Recent studies have reported that silent C-nociceptors (SNs), a subtype of C nociceptors, can be "awakened" by inflammatory substances released by sensory terminals and immune cells under tissue injury or visceral dysfunction. SNs can transform from mechano-insensitive nociceptors in a healthy state to mechanosensitive nociceptors. Activated SNs play a vital role in sensory and pain modulation and can amplify sensory inputs from the injured tissue and then mediate sensory hyperalgesia. Whether activated SNs is involved in the mechanism of acupoint sensitization and contributes to the delivery of mechanical signals from needling manipulation remains unclear? In this review, we discuss the known functions of cutaneous C nociceptors and SNs and focus on recent studies highlighting the role of activated SNs in acupoint functional plasticity.
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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.