Research progress of acupuncture for modulating the inflammatory response in treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease commonly seen in middle-aged and elderly people. Acupuncture can effectively reduce the symptoms of PD and improve the life quality of patients. In this paper, we reviewed the relevant literature on acupuncture modulation of PD inflammation in recent years from the perspective of neuroinflammation. The results showed that the mechanism of acupuncture for inflammatory responses in treatment of PD is closely related to inhibiting the glial cell activation, regulating the peripheral immune cells, suppressing the release of inflammatory factors, inducing anti-inflammatory factor expression, modulating the expression of inflammatory signaling pathways, and attenuating the intestinal inflammation. It may be effective for alleviating neuroinflammation, reducing neuronal damage, and delaying the progression of PD. This paper provides the evidences and ideas for the deepening research of the mechanism of PD treated with acupuncture and moxibustion in the future.