Surface-Modified Acupuncture Needles Offering Enhanced Therapeutic Properties

Abstract

The paradigm of modern medicines, which is mainly about chemotherapy, shows limits caused by side effect, temporary therapeutic efficacy and drug resistance. Over the three thousands of chemicals have been used as chemotherapeutic treatment and some of them have contaminated environment and destroyed the ecology, as residual drug which is called ‘Xenobiotics’. So acupuncture an oriental medicine, which has been used as a complementary and alternative medical treatment is attracting attention.

Acupuncture needle begins to be employed from 6000 BC, which is believed to be, by insertion of sharpened stone, bamboo, and bone. It is a medical device which converts physical energy to vital energy by needle insertion in the skin. However, most of plausible mechanisms cannot explain its actual action clearly yet. Although acupuncture is unexplainable therapeutic system, it has been adopted in various types of illnesses as a kind of effective therapy. One of the reasons, acupuncture needle is attracting attention is its environment friendly and sustainable treatment technique which does not have side effects due to physical stimulation rather than chemotherapy.

Recently, it has been proved that the therapeutic effect of acupuncture needle in the treatment of four major serious illnesses such as cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease expect to be a sustainable treatment without side effects due to physical stimulation energy instead of chemotherapy. Increasing surface area and development of quantum mechanical stimulation modeled functional nanoparticles such as magnetic field, fluorescence and surface plasmonic effect will be a new breakthrough in the premises of modern medicines For this reason, it is urgent to develop various acupuncture needle based on modern technology. At this point, nanotechnology-based acupuncture research will innovate new class of acupuncture needle as a game changer in medical field

Hence motivated, we have electrochemically anodized acupuncture needle to engrave a large number of concave holes to get porous acupuncture needle (PAN). The hierarchical micro/nanostructured surface provoked enhanced stimulation intensity with surface area approximately 20 times higher than conventional acupuncture needle (CAN). The effect of high surface area stimulation in rats, showed PAN to be more powerful in acupuncture efficacy.

In the case of drug addiction treatment such as of alcohol and cocaine, electrophysiological and behavioral responses from in vivo stimulation of HT7 acupoint proved that PAN significantly reduced drug withdrawal symptoms in animal model more than CAN. In addition, the molecular biological changes adduced by PAN found to be inhibiting the growth and elimination of cancer cells. PAN is confirmed as neurophysiological excellence than CAN and opened the possibility of treatment for severe disease.

Second, Noble metal nanoparticle such as gold, silver and platinum have elicited numbers of interesting results for significant biomedical applications due to their inertness and electrical properties. Electrochemical deposition method is utilized for nano particle deposition of noble metal on the surface of PAN and CAN. The nanoparticles enhanced its surface area and reduced impedance than PAN. These properties, in comparison to CAN, induced more neuron activity.