ArticleAnnals of translational medicine2022
Electroacupuncture attenuates spared nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain possibly by promoting the progression of AMPK/mTOR-mediated autophagy in spinal microglia.
Article in Annals of translational medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global research hotspots and trends of acupuncture regulating neuroplasticity: a bibliometric analysis from 2005 to 2024.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Molecular Mechanisms of Electroacupuncture-Induced Spinal Microglial Reprogramming in Neuropathic Pain: A Systematic Search-Narrative Review.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Erratum: Electroacupuncture attenuates spared nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain possibly by promoting the progression of AMPK/mTOR-mediated autophagy in spinal microglia.Annals of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Electroacupuncture Attenuates Cyclophosphamide-Induced Bladder Pain by Restoring Autophagy in Spinal Inhibitory Interneurons.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Electroacupuncture alleviates sciatic nerve injury in sciatica rats by regulating BDNF and NGF levels, myelin sheath degradation, and autophagy.Open life sciences · 2025Article
- A narrative review of autophagy in migraine.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Review
- Electroacupuncture ameliorates inflammatory pain through CB2 receptor-dependent activation of the AMPK signaling pathway.Chinese medicine · 2024Article
- Electroacupuncture Improves Learning and Memory Abilities via Activating AMPK/mTOR-Induced Autophagy in APP/PS1 Mice.Biochemical genetics · 2024Article
- Electroacupuncture suppresses neuronal ferroptosis to relieve chronic neuropathic pain.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2024Article
- Neuroinflammation in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus precipitates visceral pain induced by pancreatic cancer in mice.Journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2024Article
- Astrocyte activation in hindlimb somatosensory cortex contributes to electroacupuncture analgesia in acid-induced pain.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Neuropathic pain (NP) is a syndrome that arises from central or peripheral nerve injury, which manifests primarily as hyperalgesia, spontaneous pain, and allodynia. The recent trend has exhibited a shift towards the development of therapies for managing NP. Activation of autophagy is involved in the function of the glial cells, which may be implicated further to attenuate pain. Methods: In this study, the analgesic effects of electroacupuncture (EA) were evaluated among NP rats developed using spared nerve injury (SNI). Acupuncture treatment or EA was carried out after 7 days of SNI at two acupoints, i.e., the Zusanli (ST36) and Huantiao (GB30). Results: The application of EA was found to attenuate mechanical hyperalgesia. The marker protein for microglial cells (CD11b) alone, without either the astrocyte marker or neuronal marker, was co-expressed with the autophagy indicator p62, as illustrated with immunofluorescence staining. Western blotting demonstrated that the expression levels of p62, Beclin-1, and LC3-II/LC3-I were elevated in the spinal cords of rats in the SNI group compared to the control levels. EA treatment resulted in reduced expression of p62, while the expressions of Beclin-1 and LC3-II/LC3-I were increased. The electron microscopy results indicated that EA could induce autophagy progression in the microglia of the spinal dorsal horn in SNI rats. Furthermore, we explored the causal relationship between EA-induced inhibition of NP and increased autophagic levels in microglia using the AMPK inhibitor compound C, and found that the mechanism of EA-induced analgesia may contribute to the promotion of AMPK/mTOR-mediated autophagy in spinal microglia. Conclusions: Our work showed that the analgesic impact of EA is partly related to AMPK/mTOR pathway activation and autophagy induction in microglial cells, providing a potential therapeutic target for NP.
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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.