Transcriptomic Analysis of Rat Cerebral Cortex Reveals the Potential Mechanism of Electroacupuncture Opening Blood Brain Barrier

Therapeutic treatment options for central nervous system (CNS) diseases are greatly limited by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Electroacupuncture (EA) can be used to induce an increase in BBB permeability on rats, providing a potential approach for the delivery of drugs from the systemic circulation into the brain. However, there remains a large gap in our knowledge regarding the impact of EA on brain gene expression. This work is focused on investigating the transcriptional changes of rat cerebral cortex following EA and expression changes in genes and bioinformatic analysis was performed. Our results provide a valuable resource that will guide mechanism research of EA opening BBB and other ways to mediate drug delivery into the brain. Overall design: This work is focused on investigating the transcriptional changes of rat cerebral cortex following EA and expression changes in genes and bioinformatic analysis was performed.