Frantz Alexsandro Luís, Regner Gabriela Gregory, Pflüger Pricila, Coelho Vanessa Rodrigues, da Silva Lucas Lima, Viau Cassiana Macagnan, de Souza Marcele Silva, da Silva Juliana Bondan, Picada Jaqueline Nascimento, Saffi Jenifer, Pereira Patrícia
Laboratory of Neuropharmacology and Preclinical Toxicology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Department of Basic Health Science, Laboratory of Genetic Toxicology, UFCSPA, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Neurosci Lett. 2017 Nov 20;661:33-40. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.09.044. Epub 2017 Sep 22.
The use of acupuncture in the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders is an age-old practice. Although only a few studies have proved its efficacy, evidence has indicated the use of acupuncture to treat different types of seizures. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of manual acupuncture (MAC) using the chemical kindling model. The role of MAC in oxidative stress and inflammation after pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced kindling was investigated by measuring reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities, nitrite content, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage in cerebral cortex. Mice received PTZ (60mg/kgs.c.) once every three days for 16days, totaling six treatments. MAC was applied at acupoint GV20 daily during the entire experimental protocol. Diazepam (DZP) (2mg/kg) was used as positive control. Also, we evaluated the MAC effect associated with DZP (MAC/DZP) at a low dose (0.15mg/kg). The results demonstrated that MAC or MAC/DZP were not able to reduce significantly seizure occurrence or to increase the latency to the first seizure during treatment. MAC/DZP promoted a difference in the first latency to seizure only on the third day. PTZ-induced kindling caused significant neuronal injury, oxidative stress, increased DNA damage, nitric oxide production, and expression of the pro-inflammatory Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α). These effects were reversed by treatment with MAC or MAC/DZP. These results indicated that the stimulation of acupoint GV20 by MAC showed no potential antiepileptogenic effect in the model used, although it greatly promoted neuronal protection, which may result from antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects observed here.
针刺疗法用于治疗中枢神经系统（CNS）疾病由来已久。尽管仅有少数研究证实了其疗效，但有证据表明针刺可用于治疗不同类型的癫痫发作。因此，本研究旨在使用化学点燃模型评估手针（MAC）的效果。通过测量大脑皮层中活性氧（ROS）生成、超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）和过氧化氢酶（CAT）活性、亚硝酸盐含量以及脱氧核糖核酸（DNA）损伤，研究MAC在戊四氮（PTZ）诱导点燃后氧化应激和炎症反应中的作用。小鼠每三天接受一次PTZ（60mg/kgs.c.），共16天，总计六次治疗。在整个实验过程中，每天在GV20穴位进行MAC治疗。地西泮（DZP）（2mg/kg）用作阳性对照。此外，我们还评估了低剂量（0.15mg/kg）的MAC与DZP联合使用（MAC/DZP）的效果。结果表明，MAC或MAC/DZP在治疗期间均不能显著减少癫痫发作次数或增加首次癫痫发作的潜伏期。MAC/DZP仅在第三天使首次癫痫发作潜伏期出现差异。PTZ诱导的点燃导致显著的神经元损伤、氧化应激、DNA损伤增加、一氧化氮生成以及促炎细胞因子肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）表达上调。MAC或MAC/DZP治疗可逆转这些效应。这些结果表明，在本模型中，MAC刺激GV20穴位虽无潜在的抗癫痫发生作用，但能显著促进神经元保护，这可能源于此处观察到的抗氧化和抗炎作用。
