Acupuncture in Neuroinflammation Regulation May be Related to the Inhibition of M1 Microglial Activation Involved in Dementia

Acupuncture is an ancient and important part of traditional Chinese medicine. As a non-pharmacological intervention recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), acupuncture is widely used in the treatment of a variety of diseases. A large number of clinical and experimental evidences show that acupuncture can improve cognition by regulating neuroinflammation. Inflammation is a common pathological reaction of many neurodegenerative diseases, such as the activation of glial cells, the increase and release of inflammatory factors. Currently, a great deal of work progresses in the field of acupuncture in the field of antiinflammation. To summarize the role of acupuncture in improving neuroinflammation in dementia, this review focuses on brain diseases and discusses the mechanism of acupuncture in the activation of glial cells in Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VD), Parkinson's disease (PD). Those acupoints distributed in 14 meridians and concentrated in the head and the distal extremities, are closely related to the activation and regulation of microglia. As described by recent studies, the inhibition of M1 microglial activation mediated by TLRs/NF-kappa B and MAPKs pathways may be one of the key mechanisms of acupuncture regulating neuroinflammatory response and improving cognitive impairment in AD, VD and PD.