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Review
. 2024 May 29:17:495-516.
doi: 10.2147/JAA.S462262. eCollection 2024.

Research on the Mechanism and Application of Acupuncture Therapy for Asthma: A Review

Fei-Xuan Wang  1 , Lu-Wei Jin  2
Affiliations
Review

Research on the Mechanism and Application of Acupuncture Therapy for Asthma: A Review

Fei-Xuan Wang et al. J Asthma Allergy. .

Abstract

Asthma is a high-risk disease based on airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). In this review, we found that there are many studies on clinical therapy for asthma that focus on the efficacy of acupuncture therapy and its mechanisms, including the functional connectivity of different brain regions, with the aid of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), immune responses/cell recognition (innate lymphoid cells and balance of Th1/Th2 and Treg/Th17), intracellular mechanism (autophagy, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and epigenetic alteration), and ligand-receptor/chemical signaling pathway (neurotransmitter, hormone, and small molecules). In this review, we summarized the clinical and experimental evidence for the mechanisms of acupuncture therapy in asthma to offer insights into drug discovery and clinical therapy. Given the paucity of clinical studies on the mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of asthma, this review notably included studies based on animal models to investigate the mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of asthma.

Keywords: acupoint; acupuncture therapy; asthma; fMRI; mechanism.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The mechanisms of acupuncture therapy in treating asthma.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Common acupuncture points and their locations.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Inflammation and cell recognition in asthma.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Intracellular mechanism involved in asthma.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Ligand–receptor chemical signaling pathway involved in asthma.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Data analysis of the collected data from literature.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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