Acupuncture at Back-Shu point improves insomnia by reducing inflammation and inhibiting the ERK/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Background: Insomnia is a disease where individuals cannot maintain a steady and stable sleep state or fail to fall asleep. Western medicine mainly uses sedatives and hypnotic drugs to treat insomnia, and long-term use is prone to drug resistance and other adverse reactions. Acupuncture has a good curative effect and unique advantages in the treatment of insomnia.

Aim: To explore the molecular mechanism of acupuncture at Back-Shu point for the treatment of insomnia.

Methods: We first prepared a rat model of insomnia, and then carried out acupuncture for 7 consecutive days. After treatment, the sleep time and general behavior of the rats were determined. The Morris water maze test was used to assess the learning ability and spatial memory ability of the rats. The expression levels of inflammatory cytokines in serum and the hippocampus were detected by ELISA. qRT-PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression changes in the ERK/NF-κB signaling pathway. Western blot and immunohistochemistry were carried out to evaluate the protein expression levels of RAF-1, MEK-2, ERK1/2 and NF-κB.

Results: Acupuncture can prolong sleep duration, and improve mental state, activity, diet volume, learning ability and spatial memory. In addition, acupuncture increased the release of 1L-1β, 1L-6 and TNF-α in serum and the hippocampus and inhibited the mRNA and protein expression of the ERK/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that acupuncture at Back-Shu point can inhibit the ERK/NF-κB signaling pathway and treat insomnia by increasing the release of inflammatory cytokines in the hippo-campus.