[Approaches to the mechanism research of acupuncture for attenuating inflammatory bowel disease from the perspective of "autonomic nerve-immune" regulation].

As a kind of physical intervention on the body surface, acupuncture may regulate the activities of autonomic nerve including sympathetic nerve and vagus nerve, and influence the release of many kinds of neurotransmitters, so as to regulate the dynamic, metabolic and immune functions of the effector organs. In recent years, the regulatory role of the nervous system in the pathogenesis and progression of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has garnered increasing attention. Although high-quality evidence has revealed the potential of acupuncture to ameliorate systemic inflammation through "nerve-immune" modulation, the research of the "autonomic nerve-immune" mechanism of acupuncture remains limited for attenuating the regional inflammatory responses in IBD. Based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and immunology, this study systematically reviews the nerve-immune regulatory mechanisms underlying IBD and discusses in-depth the potential autonomic nerve-immune regulatory mechanisms of acupuncture in combination with current neurobiological evidence of its anti-inflammatory effect. It suggests adopting systems biology and integrating multidisciplinary technologies to elucidate the "full-chain" evidence of the "acupoint-autonomic nervous system-intestinal immune" regulatory mechanism, and provides the reference for subsequent mechanistic analysis of acupuncture in alleviating IBD.