Studies in Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Effect of Moxibustion on Regulatory T cell Induction in Mouse CIA Model

KAWAKITA Kunio — Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We herein demonstrated that direct moxibustion applied to the acupuncture point GV 4 suppresses incidence and severity of CIA through the differentiation and induction of regulatory T cells. This is the first report to provide evidence that moxibustion affects the regulatory T cell population in murine CIA.

Alligators and Frogs: A More Pharmacovigilant Source of Drugs for Multiple Resistant Microorganisms and Other Bodily Diseases

Vivek Miraaj — Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Frogs and alligators promise to provide an alternative source of newer drugs in the community of drug discovers and developers. It is of a great importance to note that some of the alkaloids found in herbal plants can also be found in animals, or at least similar groups of compounds. There is therefore need to concert efforts in research on animal venoms, secretions and other peptides that have the potential to develop more pharmacovigilant drugs against multi drug resistant microorganisms and other bodily disorders. The effort are highly required in both drug structure activity relationships as well as structure property relationships in order to determine bioavailability predictions at earlier stages of drug discovery. Besides pharmacognosy, this paper urges researchers to also invest in animal secretions for potential drug development.

A Comparative Study on the Effect of PTN on Improving Upper Back Muscle Stiffness

YAMAGUCHI Shogo — Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It is believed that the tender point is an area where the pain threshold is low and the pain receptor for that area elicits hyperalgesia by sensitization. Although it was reported that the origin of the tender point has not been sufficiently studied. In this study, the muscle branches of the 3 rd and 4 th cervical nerves were distributed on the muscle where tender points accompanied by upper back muscle stiffness were recognized. Moreover, the supraclavicular nerves, which are the cutaneous branches of the abovementioned nerves, innervate the region of the skin in the proximity of the upper back, which covers these muscles. Therefore, since the PTN treatment on the tactile tender point can be stimulation on the skin, which is innervated by the same nerve as the muscle where the upper back muscle stiffness has occurred, it is thought that the upper back muscle stiffness improved by the change in pain threshold through the receptor of the skin sensory nerve.

Clinical Trial of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Shoulder and Neck Pain

Okuma SUMIYA — Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

To make clear the usefulness of acupuncture, we conducted acupuncture and local injection and compared the effectiveness, with 33 patients who had neck pain. In the result, the acupuncture group showed significantly better results for the effect at immediately after treatment and the effect from sequential treatment, and the sustained effect after treatment. From these results, acupuncture considering the subjective pain point is thought to be a more useful treatment, even if compared with local injection that is generally viewed as valid.

Validity of the N-of-1 Test in Assessing the Efficacy of Acupuncture

TANZAWA Shouhachi, SUZUKI Masao — Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

N-of-1 trials can evaluate the effectiveness of various specialized interventions in a number of patients who differ in several ways. They are easy to adopt for an exploratory study. The characteristics of the n-of-1 trial seem to be suitable for acupuncture research and the use of n-of-1 trials in acupuncture has been recommended4,13). However, the n-of-1 trial is not appropriate in cases where acupuncture treatments have long-lasting or irreversible effects. Moreover it has been pointed out that the results of n-of-1 trials cannot be easily generalized.14) Here we propose a unique protocol of n-of-1 trials that allows generalization from the results obtained from each patient attending an acupuncture clinic.