Zhang Rui, Andersen Anders H, Hardy Peter A, Forman Eric, Evans April, Ai Yi, Yue Jin, Yue Guihua, Gash Don M, Grondin Richard, Zhang Zhiming
Department of Neurosurgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong University, School of Medicine, Jinan, Shandong 250021 PR China; Department of Neuroscience, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
Brain Res. 2018 Jan 1;1678:12-19. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2017.10.006. Epub 2017 Oct 7.
Acupuncture has increasingly been used as an alternative therapy for treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the efficacy of acupunture for PD still remains unclear. The present study was designed to objectively and safely monitor anti-parkinsonian effects of electroacupuncture (EA) and brain activity in nonhuman primates modeling human PD. Six middle-aged rhesus monkeys were extensively studied by a computerized behavioral testing battery and by pharmacological MRI (phMRI) scans with specific dopaminergic drug stimulations. All animals were evaluated for behavior and phMRI responses under normal, parkinsonian, parkinsonian with EA treatment and parkinsonian after EA treatment conditions. Stable parkinsonian features were observed in all animals prior to entering the EA study and positive responses to levodopa (L-dopa) challenge were also seen in all animals. The results demonstrated that chronic EA treatments could significantly improve the movement speed and the fine motor performance time during the period of EA treatments, and the effectiveness of EA could be detected even 3 months after the EA treatment. The phMRI data revealed that chronic EA treatments could alter neuronal activity in the striatum, primary motor cortex (M1), cingulate gyrus and global pallidus externa (GPe) in the ipsilateral hemisphere to MPTP lesions. As seen in the changes of parkinsonian features, the residual effects of phMRI responses to apomorphine (APO) challenge could also be found in the aforementioned areas. The results strongly suggest that anti-parkinsonian effects of EA can be objectively assessed, and the method used in the present study could be translated into the human clinic with some minor modifications.
针灸越来越多地被用作治疗帕金森病（PD）的替代疗法。然而，针灸治疗PD的疗效仍不明确。本研究旨在客观、安全地监测电针（EA）对模拟人类PD的非人类灵长类动物的抗帕金森病作用及脑活动。通过计算机化行为测试组合以及使用特定多巴胺能药物刺激的药理磁共振成像（phMRI）扫描，对6只中年恒河猴进行了广泛研究。在正常、帕金森病、帕金森病接受EA治疗以及EA治疗后帕金森病的条件下，对所有动物的行为和phMRI反应进行了评估。在进入EA研究之前，所有动物均观察到稳定的帕金森病特征，并且所有动物对左旋多巴（L-多巴）激发试验均有阳性反应。结果表明，慢性EA治疗可在EA治疗期间显著提高运动速度和精细运动表现时间，甚至在EA治疗后3个月仍可检测到EA的有效性。phMRI数据显示，慢性EA治疗可改变同侧半球纹状体、初级运动皮层（M1）、扣带回和外侧苍白球（GPe）中与MPTP损伤相关的神经元活动。如帕金森病特征的变化所示，在上述区域也可发现对阿扑吗啡（APO）激发试验的phMRI反应的残留效应。结果强烈表明，EA的抗帕金森病作用可以客观评估，并且本研究中使用的方法经过一些小的修改后可转化应用于人类临床。
