Electroacupuncture exerts an analgesic effect by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the periaqueductal gray in a rat model of bone cancer pain.

Authors

Xin Li, Siyin Wu, Xiaoxuan Zhang, Shouyu Xie, Wei Wang, Xingji You, Jingxiang Wu

Published in

Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society. Pages 9645284261493530. Nov 02, 2026. Epub Nov 02, 2026.

Abstract

To investigate the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) at ST36 and BL60 in a rat model of bone cancer pain (BCP) to provide a theoretical basis and guidance for the clinical treatment of BCP.
In experiment 1, rats were assigned to sham, untreated model (BCP), EA-treated model (BCP + EA) and sham EA-treated model (BCP + SEA) groups. Pain was assessed behaviorally by a paw withdrawal threshold and limb use score. The activation of microglia and astrocytes in the periaqueductal gray was detected by immunohistochemistry. Expression of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), caspase-1 and interleukin (IL)-1β in the periaqueductal gray matter was detected by Western blotting. A NLRP3 agonist (nigericin sodium salt (NSS)) was used in experiment 2, wherein rats were assigned to sham, BCP, BCP + EA and BCP + EA + NSS groups. For the overexpression of NLRP3, rats in the BCP + EA + NSSgroup were injected intraperitoneally with NSS on day 17 after surgery.
EA markedly relieved BCP and suppressed the overexpression of NLRP3/caspase-1/IL-1β in the periaqueductal gray, which is related to the activation of astrocytes and microglial cells. Pharmacological activation of NLRP3 reversed the analgesic effect of EA and increased the expression of NLRP3/caspase-1/IL-1β in the periaqueductal gray. In addition, c-fos was significantly downregulated by EA and this effect was also reversed by the NLRP3 agonist, suggesting that the role of EA in BCP may involve mitigation of inflammation.
EA interferes with the NLRP3/caspase-1/IL-1β pathway in the periaqueductal gray to exert an analgesic effect in this rat model of BCP.

PMID:
42972927
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 03 Nov 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.