Ningcen Li,# 1 , 2 , † Hui Wang,# 3 , † Hang Liu,# 4 , 5 , † Lina Zhu, 4 , 5 Zhongxi Lyu, 1 Jiwen Qiu, 1 Tianyi Zhao, 1 Haiyan Ren, 1 Lihong Huang, 1 Shuangli Chen, 1 Xiuwu Hu, 4 , 5 , * and Liang Zhou 4 , 5 , *

1Research Center of Experimental Acupuncture Science, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China

2Binhai New Area Hospital of TCM, Fourth Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China

3Xi’an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi’an, Shanxi, China

4Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department, Nanchang Hongdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

5Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medical Clinical Research Center of Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

Abstract

Stroke is one of the important causes of both disability and death worldwide, which is very common in older adults. Post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) is a common secondary damage of stroke, which is the main cause of long-term disability and decreased quality of life in stroke patients, which brings a heavy burden to society and families. Acupuncture, as one of the oldest and widely used worldwide techniques in Chinese medicine, is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an alternative and complementary strategy for improving stroke care. This review comprehensively summarizes literature from the last 25 years, showing that acupuncture can exert strong beneficial effect on PSCI. The mechanisms of acupuncture on PSCI involves anti-neuronal apoptosis, promoting synaptic plasticity, alleviating central and peripheral inflammatory reactions, and regulating brain energy metabolism disorders (including improving cerebral blood flow, glucose utilization and mitochondrial structure and function, etc.), etc. The effects and mechanisms of acupuncture on PSCI reviewed in this study provides scientific and reliable evidence for acupuncture application for PSCI.

Keywords: acupuncture, stroke, post-stroke cognitive impairment, vascular cognitive impairment, vascular dementia