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Electroacupuncture Ameliorates Neuronal Injury by NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 Mediated Pyroptosis in Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion

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Abstract

NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 mediated pyroptosis is one of the important causes of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Electroacupuncture (EA) is widely used in clinical treatment of ischemic stroke. However, mechanism of EA on ischemic stroke remains unclear. Therefore, on basis of a previous work, this study used middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) 2 h and then reperfusion 7 days in rats to simulate brain I/R process. EA with Bahui (GV20) and Zusanli (ST36) and VX-765 (a specific inhibitor of Caspase-1) was performed. In this study, we found that EA improved cerebral infarct size and neuronal damage, including ultrastructural injury, and ameliorated nitro/oxidative stress in cerebral I/R. Additionally, EA treatment significantly decreased ASC, Caspase-1, GSDMD, and IL-1β expression and VX-765 treatment significantly decreased NLRP3, Caspase-1, and IL-1β expression. This proved that EA can regulate NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 mediated pyroptosis, improve neuronal injury during cerebral I/R, and provide basic experimental data for clinical treatment.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82205250) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (No. ZR2021QH056), to Dr. Huanyuan Wang. All funding bodies funded in study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, and writing manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Bin Tang, Yan Li.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Shandong University, No. 107 Wenhuaxi Road, Lixia District, **an, 250012, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Tang, Yan Li, Guangzhong Du & Huanyuan Wang

  2. Department of Acupuncture-Moxibustion, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, **an, Shandong, China

    **fa Xu

Authors
  1. Bin Tang
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  2. Yan Li
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  3. **fa Xu
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  4. Guangzhong Du
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  5. Huanyuan Wang
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Contributions

The study concept and design: Huanyuan Wang, Bin Tang, and Yan Li. Writing of the manuscript: Huanyuan Wang. Data analysis: Huanyuan Wang and **fa Xu. Obtaining data: Huanyuan Wang, Bin Tang, Yan Li. Interpretation of results: Huanyuan Wang and Guangzhong Du. Critical revisions of the manuscript: Huanyuan Wang. Approval of the version for submission: All the authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huanyuan Wang.

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Ethics Approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. This study was performed under supervision of the Animal Care and Use Committee of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University. All procedures performed in studies involving animals were by the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted by Experimental Animal Center of Shandong University.

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All co-authors approved final version of manuscript and agreed to submit it to Molecular Neurobiology.

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Tang, B., Li, Y., Xu, X. et al. Electroacupuncture Ameliorates Neuronal Injury by NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 Mediated Pyroptosis in Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion. Mol Neurobiol 61, 2357–2366 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-023-03712-1

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