Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder, and brain energy metabolism disorders are closely related to the onset of AD. Acupuncture-moxibustion is one of the effective treatments for AD, which can significantly improve AD symptoms and slow down the progression of the disease. The mechanism of its action has also been continuously studied. This article summarizes the relevant research on acupuncture-moxibustion regulating brain energy metabolism to improve AD. The results show that acupuncture-moxibustion mainly improves AD brain energy metabolism disorders from the following aspects: 1) regulating glucose metabolism disorders (promoting glucose transport, increasing glucose uptake and utilization, and regulating glycolytic activity in the brain), 2) regulating mitochondrial structure and dysfunction (improving mitochondrial structure and dynamics, enhancing electron transfer chain activity and ATP production, inhibiting abnormal opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pores), 3) improving insulin resistance and damage to the insulin signaling pathway, and 4) restoring amino acid and lipid metabolic imbalance. It plays a role in neuroprotection and delaying the progression of the disease.

Depression is an emotional mental disorder caused by various reasons, characterized by significant and persistent depression. Acupuncture is effective in treating depression, and the relevant mechanism research is also continuing to deepen. Research confirms that abnormal changes in the brain network play a key role in the occurrence and development of depression. This article reviews and sorts out the research on acupuncture regulation of brain network for treatment of depression in recent years. From multiple dimensions such as sensory-related network, cognitive-related network, emotional-related network and brain network interaction, this paper summarizes the brain function mechanism of acupuncture treatment of depression, aiming to provide a useful reference for further research and clinical practice in this field.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, and mitochondrial dysfunction is closely related to the pathogenesis of AD. Acupuncture is one of the effective methods for treating AD, which can significantly improve AD symptoms and delay disease progression, and research on its mechanism of action has been continuously deepened. This article combs and summarizes the relevant studies on acupuncture regulating mitochondrial function to improve AD. The results show that acupuncture restores and maintains mitochondrial function mainly by protecting mitochondrial morphology and structure, improving mitochondrial dynamics, regulating mitochondrial energy metabolism, modulating mitophagy, maintaining mitochondrial calcium homeostasis, reducing oxidative stress damage, and inhibiting cell apoptosis, thereby exerting a therapeutic effect on AD. Existing studies have limitations, such as focusing more on single factor of mitochondrial dysfunction, rarely considering the involvement mechanism of other cells besides neurons, incomplete experimental design schemes, and failing to consider the connection between disease stages and mitochondrial dysfunction. Future studies need to explore the functional status of mitochondria at different stages of AD pathogenesis and the specific regulatory effect of acupuncture.

The Fragment of Dunhuang Ancient Tibetan Moxibustion Therapy contains rich content on fire moxibustion therapy of Tubo-period Tibetan medicine, characterized by distinctive clinical features of Tibetan acupuncture and strong regional attributes. This paper systematically reviews the relevant materials on moxibustion in the Fragment and summarizes the findings as follows: Tibetan fire moxibustion mainly uses mugwort as the material, and terms like "fine mugwort", "broad bean" and "sheep dung pellet" refer to the size of the moxa cone. The number of moxa cones used is predominantly odd numbers, usually ranging from 5 to 21. The main indications for fire moxibustion cover internal medicine, external medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, and various pain syndromes. The therapy advocates for treating acute conditions and heat syndromes with moxibustion. The manuscript also records detailed contraindications, including time-based and seasonal taboos. Moxibustion is applied to both local and distal acupoints, reflecting the therapeutic concept of treating both proximal and distal regions. Furthermore, it documents simple and practical acupoint localization methods such as surface anatomical markers, proportional bone measurement, finger measurement, and hand-span measurement. Compared with contemporaneous Chinese medical moxibustion techniques, the moxibustion methods recorded in this Fragment are rich in content and present unique Tibetan theoretical characteristics. It provides valuable data and evidence for the excavation, application, and further research of Tibetan acupuncture and moxibustion.

Acupuncture has a definite effect on the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and its molecular mechanism has been studied more and more deeply. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) signaling pathway is mainly involved in the regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy and synaptic plasticity, and plays an important role in the occurrence and development of AD. In this paper, we reviewed the role of PI3K/AKT pathway in the pathogenesis of AD and the mechanism of acupuncture intervention, and concluded that the abnormal expression of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway can lead to imbalance of cellular oxidative defense system, impairment of mitochondrial structure and function synaptic destruction, abnormal autophagy and energy metabolism disorders, and acupuncture can improve oxidative stress damage, enhance synaptic plasticity, regulate autophagic activity and regulate energy metabolism by regulating PI3K/AKT signaling pathway to cure AD.

Positron emission computed tomography (PET-CT), which combines functional metabolism imaging and anatomical structure imaging, represents the highest level of nuclear medicine imaging technology, and is increasingly used in the study of acupuncture effect mechanism. In the present paper, we review the recent progress of application of PET-CT technology in acupuncture clinic and experimental study, and conclude that the advantages of PET-CT technology are that it can confirm the acupuncture effect from the level of brain functional activities and structure, including the brain functional mechanism of acupoint effect specificity, acupoint compatibility effect, acupuncture Deqi effect, and bidirectional regulation effect of acupuncture, etc. At present, PET-CT technology is mainly used to explore the central mechanism of acupuncture in improving brain diseases, and is also commonly used in gastrointestinal diseases, cardiovascular diseases and gynecological diseases. PET-CT technology provides intuitive and visual detection means and a more direct and accurate data basis for acupuncture research, which can reflect the overall regulation characteristics and advantages of acupuncture with multi-targets, multi-pathways and multi-levels, and provides effective means and technical support for the in-depth study on the underlying mechanisms of acupuncture effects.

Pain-related emotions refer to the negative emotions such as depression and anxiety triggered by pain, which seriously impact patients’ physical and mental health as well as the quality of life. The gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) ergic system is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter system in the brain and plays a significant role in the onset and development of pain-related emotions. Acupuncture can effectively ameliorate the negative emotions such as depression and anxiety caused by pain. Its mechanism is closely related to the regulatory effect of acupuncture on GABAergic system. Acupuncture is active in modulating GABAergic neurons, up-regulating the expression of GABAergic neuron subtype parvalbumin neurons and down-regulating the expression of GABAergic neuron subtype neuropeptide Y; up-regulating the mRNA expression of GABAA receptor (GABAAR) and the protein expression of GABAB2 in the amygdala, and down-regulating the protein expression of GABAAR in the anteiror cingulate cortex. Besides, acupuncture can regulate the expressions of the key factors such as gutamate decarboxylase and gama-amino-butyrate transporter that affect the GABAergic system, thereby relieve pain-related emotions. These findings provide the references for the mechanism research and clinical application of acupuncture in treatment of pain-related emotions.