Mechanistic study of wrist-ankle acupuncture in treating chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain via the 7nAChR/JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in spinal cord dorsal horn

Key Points

• The central aim is to explore whether wrist-ankle acupuncture modulates the alpha7nAChR signaling pathway to alleviate chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain.
• Developed microglial cell-specific alpha7nAChR knockout mice.
• Divided mice into control, model, acupuncture, and acupuncture+knockout groups.
• Established pain models using paclitaxel injection.
• Administered electroacupuncture to treatment groups.
• Measured pain thresholds and performed immunofluorescence, Western blot, and RT-qPCR analyses.
• Pain thresholds were significantly lower in the model group compared to the control group (P<0.001).
• Alpha7nAChR expression decreased, while Iba-1, p-JAK2/JAK2, p-STAT3/STAT3, and inflammatory factors increased in the model group (P<0.001).
• Wrist-ankle acupuncture improved these changes (P<0.01 or P<0.001).
• Alpha7nAChR knockout diminished the beneficial effects of acupuncture (P<0.01 or P<0.001).