Basic Medical School, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 201203, People's Republic of China.
School of Acupuncture-moxibustion and Tuina, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 201203, People's Republic of China.
Brain Res Bull. 2021 May;170:155-161. doi: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2021.02.002. Epub 2021 Feb 5.
Electroacupuncture (EA), a modern form of acupuncture therapy, has been widely used for the treatment of ischaemic brain injury. However, the molecular mechanism by which EA improves ischaemic brain injury remains unclear. In the current study, middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rats were treated with EA. The infarct volumes and apoptosis of neurocytes were assessed to determine the therapeutic effect of EA. The differentially expressed miRNAs between the control, MCAO and MCAO treated with EA groups were detected by high-throughput sequencing. The results indicated that EA treatment decreased neurocyte apoptosis and ischaemic infarct volume. Between the three groups, miR-34, miR-235 and miR-275 were found to be significantly different. Furthermore, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway data suggest that the Wnt pathway may play an important role in ischaemic brain injury and in the treatment of EA. Our data documented that miR-34 was obviously increased in the MCAO group, while EA treatment decreased miR-34 expression. WNT1 was the target of miR-34 and was confirmed by a luciferase reporter assay. A previous study suggested that the Wnt pathway mediates autophagy in EA-pretreated MCAO mice. Our data further confirmed that EA treatment after MCAO also alleviated autophagy in the MCAO group. Our results suggest that EA treatment alleviates ischaemic brain injury by inhibiting autophagy through the miR-34/Wnt pathway.
电针（EA）作为一种现代针灸疗法，已广泛用于治疗缺血性脑损伤。然而，EA 改善缺血性脑损伤的分子机制尚不清楚。在本研究中，对大脑中动脉闭塞（MCAO）大鼠进行 EA 治疗。通过评估梗塞体积和神经细胞凋亡来确定 EA 的治疗效果。通过高通量测序检测了对照组、MCAO 组和 MCAO 联合 EA 治疗组之间差异表达的 miRNAs。结果表明，EA 治疗可减少神经细胞凋亡和缺血性梗死体积。在三组之间，miR-34、miR-235 和 miR-275 差异明显。此外，京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）通路数据表明，Wnt 通路可能在缺血性脑损伤和 EA 治疗中发挥重要作用。我们的数据表明，miR-34 在 MCAO 组中明显增加，而 EA 治疗则降低了 miR-34 的表达。WNT1 是 miR-34 的靶基因，通过荧光素酶报告基因检测得到证实。先前的研究表明，Wnt 通路介导 EA 预处理 MCAO 小鼠的自噬。我们的数据进一步证实，MCAO 后 EA 治疗也减轻了 MCAO 组的自噬。我们的研究结果表明，EA 治疗通过 miR-34/Wnt 通路抑制自噬来减轻缺血性脑损伤。
