Electroacupuncture Ameliorates Neuronal Injury by NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 Mediated Pyroptosis in Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion

Abstract NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 mediated pyroptosis is one of the important causes of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Electroacupuncture (EA) is widely used in clinical treatment of ischemic stroke. However, mechanism of EA on ischemic stroke remains unclear. Therefore, on basis of previous work, this study used middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) 2h and then reperfusion 7d in rats to simulate brain I/R process. EA with Bahui (GV20) and Zusanli (ST36) and VX-765 (a specific inhibitor of Caspase-1) were performed. In this study, we found that EA improved cerebral infarct size and neuronal damage, including ultrastructural injury, and ameliorated nitro/oxidative stress in cerebral I/R. Additionally, EA treatment significantly decreased ASC, Caspase-1, GSDMD and IL-1β expression and VX-765 treatment significantly decreased NLRP3, Caspase-1 and IL-1β expression. This proved that EA can regulate NLRP3/ASC/Caspase-1 mediated pyroptosis, improve neuronal injury during cerebral I/R and provide basic experimental data for clinical treatment.