Bin Yu

The comparative role of acupuncture versus Western medicine in the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remains controversial due to insufficient evidence. This study synthesizes data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to compare the efficacy of the two interventions. A systematic literature search was conducted in CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, CBM, PubMed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for RCTs published up to April 8, 2025. Six RCTs involving 756 patients were included. Meta‐analysis revealed that acupuncture significantly outperformed Western medicine in terms of overall clinical efficacy (odds ratio [OR] = 2.80, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.57, 5.01]). Significant improvements were also observed in key biomarkers: liver enzymes (mean difference [MD] = −21.93, 95% CI [−24.81, −19.05]) and blood lipids (MD = −0.78, 95% CI [−1.00, −0.56]). Furthermore, acupuncture demonstrated superior efficacy in ameliorating Traditional Chinese Medicine syndromes (MD = −2.05, 95% CI [−2.10, −2.00]). Although this analysis suggests that acupuncture may provide superior benefits for NAFLD compared with Western medicine, the conclusions are limited by the small sample sizes, methodological flaws, and substantial heterogeneity observed across the included studies. Therefore, the results should be regarded as preliminary and interpreted with caution.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) complicated by nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a highly prevalent metabolic disorder with rapidly rising prevalence and incidence rates, and it predisposes affected individuals to multiple complications. Insulin resistance (IR) is a key pathogenic factor in patients with T2DM and concomitant NAFLD, and it is closely associated with the onset and progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The triglyceride–glucose (TyG) index, a novel indicator for assessing IR, has gained growing attention for its potential value in predicting CVD risk among patients with T2DM and NAFLD. Furthermore, CVD, as a common complication of T2DM with NAFLD, significantly impairs patients’ quality of life. This review aims to explore the association between the TyG index and CVD risk prediction in patients with T2DM and NAFLD and further elaborate on the underlying mechanisms. Although the exact biological mechanism linking the TyG index to CVD remains incompletely clarified, accumulating evidence has demonstrated that elevated TyG index levels are positively correlated with higher CVD prevalence. This review deepens the understanding of CVD pathogenesis in patients with T2DM and NAFLD and provides a theoretical basis for developing more effective prevention and treatment strategies.

The circulatory system is a closed conduit system throughout the body and consists of two parts as follows: the cardiovascular system and the lymphatic system. Hematological malignancies usually grow and multiply in the circulatory system, directly or indirectly affecting its function. These malignancies include multiple myeloma, leukemia, and lymphoma. O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) transferase (OGT) regulates the function and stability of substrate proteins through O-GlcNAc modification. Abnormally expressed OGT is strongly associated with tumorigenesis, including hematological malignancies, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. In cells, OGT can assemble with a variety of proteins to form complexes to exercise related biological functions, such as OGT/HCF-1, OGT/TET, NSL, and then regulate glucose metabolism, gene transcription, cell proliferation, and other biological processes, thus affecting the development of hematological malignancies. This review summarizes the complexes involved in the assembly of OGT in cells and the role of related OGT complexes in hematological malignancies. Unraveling the complex network regulated by the OGT complex will facilitate a better understanding of hematologic malignancy development and progression.

Background: As a non-pharmacological therapy, acupuncture has significant efficacy in treating Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) compared to pharmacological therapies. In recent years, advances in neuroimaging techniques have provided new perspectives to elucidate the central mechanisms of acupuncture for MCI. Many acupuncture brain imaging studies have found significant improvements in brain function after acupuncture treatment of MCI, but the underlying mechanisms of brain regions modulation are unclear.Objective: A meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of MCI patients treated with acupuncture was conducted to summarize the effects of acupuncture on the modulation of MCI brain regions from a neuroimaging perspective.Methods: Using acupuncture, neuroimaging, magnetic resonance, and Mild Cognitive Impairment as search terms, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), Google Scholar, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Biology Medicine disk (CBM disk), Wanfang and Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP) for brain imaging studies on acupuncture on MCI published up to April 2022. Voxel-based neuroimaging meta-analysis of fMRI data was performed using voxel-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images (SDM-PSI), allowing for Family-Wise Error Rate (FWER) correction correction for correction multiple comparisons of results. Subgroup analysis was used to compare the differences in brain regions between the acupuncture treatment group and other control groups. Meta-regression was used to explore demographic information and altered cognitive function effects on brain imaging outcomes. Linear models were drawn using MATLAB 2017a, and visual graphs for quality evaluation were produced using R software and RStudio software.Results: A total of seven studies met the inclusion criteria, with 94 patients in the treatment group and 112 patients in the control group. All studies were analyzed using the regional homogeneity (ReHo) method. The experimental design of fMRI included six task state studies and one resting-state study. The meta-analysis showed that MCI patients had enhanced activity in the right insula, left anterior cingulate/paracingulate gyri, right thalamus, right middle frontal gyrus, right median cingulate/paracingulate gyri, and right middle temporal gyrus brain regions after acupuncture treatment. Further analysis of RCT and longitudinal studies showed that Reho values were significantly elevated in two brain regions, the left anterior cingulate/paracingulate gyrus and the right insula, after acupuncture. The MCI group showed stronger activity in the right supramarginal gyrus after acupuncture treatment compared to healthy controls. Meta-regression analysis showed that the right anterior thalamic projection ReHo index was significantly correlated with the MMSE score after acupuncture treatment in all MCI patients.Conclusions: Acupuncture therapy has a modulating effect on the brain regions of MCI patients. However, due to the inadequate experimental design of neuroimaging studies, multi-center neuroimaging studies with large samples are needed better to understand the potential neuroimaging mechanisms of acupuncture for MCI. In addition, machine learning algorithm-based predictive models for evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture for MCI may become a focus of future research.Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022287826, identifier: CRD 42022287826.

What is known and objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture through a review and analysis of systematic reviews of acupuncture for the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Methods Systematic reviews of acupuncture treatment for diabetic peripheral neuropathy were collected by searching CNKI, VIP, Wanfang database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), PubMed, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. The retrieval period was from the establishment of the database to February 14, 2020. After literature selection and extraction, included reports were evaluated in terms of the quality of the methodology and of the report using criteria from the AMSTAR2 scale and the PRISMA statement. Results and discussion Eighty eight reviews were retrieved. The inclusion criteria were a published systematic evaluation/meta‐analysis/systematic review of acupuncture treatment for diabetic peripheral neuropathy, which included subjects meeting the diagnostic criteria for diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and which compared acupuncture treatment with non‐acupuncture treatment. After the inclusion criteria had been applied, 18 reviews were finally included. According to the PRISMA statement, 3 reports were relatively complete, 12 reports had certain defects, 3 reports had considerable information missing, and 18 reports had extremely low methodological quality according to the AMSTAR2 scale. Current evidence shows that acupuncture improves diabetic peripheral neuropathy and increases nerve conduction velocity. However, the methodological quality of the reviews is generally extremely low, and most of the reviews had certain defects, showing that there is still much room for improvement in terms of the methodology and quality of the research reports. What is new and conclusion Acupuncture appears to have an effect on DPN, effectively improving nerve conduction and clinical symptoms. Although the methodological quality of the included studies was generally very low and defects were frequent, our study highlights areas where improvement in methodology is required. There is a need for further study of the pathogenesis of DPN, and for developing a unified standard for methods of acupuncture treatment, acupoint selection, and adverse reactions reporting. Traditional Chinese medical practices such as acupuncture should adopt an evidence‐based approach to provide greater confidence in their use.