Yoon Seong Shoon, Kwon Young Kyu, Kim Mi Ryeo, Shim Insop, Kim Kwang Joong, Lee Mann Hyung, Lee Young Sun, Golden Gregory T, Yang Chae Ha
Department of Physiology, College of Oriental Medicine, Daegu Haany University, Daegu 706-828, South Korea.
Neurosci Lett. 2004 Oct 21;369(3):234-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2004.07.095.
Clinical trials are currently underway to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of drug abuse. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the basic mechanisms of acupuncture. Studies have shown that the GABA(B) receptor system may play a significant modulatory role in the mesolimbic system in drug abuse, including ethanol. The in vivo microdialysis study was designed to investigate the effect of acupuncture on acute ethanol-induced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and the potential role of the GABA(B) receptor system in acupuncture. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered with the highly selective GABA(B) antagonist SCH 50911 (3 mg/kg, i.p.) 1h prior to an intraperitoneal injection of ethanol (1 g/kg). Immediately after ethanol treatment, acupuncture was given at bilateral Shenmen (HT7) points for 1min. Acupuncture at the specific acupoint HT7, but not at control points (PC6 or tail) significantly decreased dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Inhibition of dopamine release by acupuncture was completely prevented by SCH 50911. These results suggest that stimulation of specific acupoints inhibits ethanol-induced dopamine release by modulating GABA(B) activity and imply that acupuncture may be effective in blocking the reinforcing effects of ethanol.
目前正在进行临床试验以确定针灸治疗药物滥用的有效性。然而，关于针灸的基本机制仍有许多未解答的问题。研究表明，γ-氨基丁酸B（GABA(B)）受体系统可能在包括乙醇在内的药物滥用的中脑边缘系统中发挥重要的调节作用。体内微透析研究旨在调查针灸对急性乙醇诱导的伏隔核多巴胺释放的影响以及GABA(B)受体系统在针灸中的潜在作用。雄性Sprague-Dawley大鼠在腹腔注射乙醇（1 g/kg）前1小时腹腔注射高选择性GABA(B)拮抗剂SCH 50911（3 mg/kg）。乙醇处理后立即在双侧神门（HT7）穴位进行1分钟的针灸。在特定穴位HT7而非对照穴位（内关穴或尾巴）进行针灸可显著降低伏隔核中的多巴胺释放。SCH 50911完全阻止了针灸对多巴胺释放的抑制作用。这些结果表明，刺激特定穴位通过调节GABA(B)活性抑制乙醇诱导的多巴胺释放，这意味着针灸可能有效阻断乙醇的强化作用。
