Background: Post-stroke cognitive impairment is a challenge for clinical rehabilitation, and it has become a consensus to find a multimodal joint intervention approach. Irisin, isolated from fibronectin type 3 structural domain protein 5 (FNDC5), is a motor-induced myokine that has been shown to exert neurotrophic effects and improve cognition. Meanwhile, acupuncture has been shown to be an effective means of reducing neuroinflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether exercise combined with electroacupuncture could be more effective in improving cognitive impairment via Irisin in rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. Methods: Post-stroke cognitive impairment induced by the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in Sprague-Dawley rats, the electroacupuncture group used electroacupuncture at "Baihui" (GV 20) and "Shenting" point (GV 24); the exercise group used exercise training on a treadmill; and the combined group was treated with exercise training followed by electroacupuncture therapy. Before and after the intervention, Zea-longa was used to detect the neurological deficit score of rats; 7.0T small animal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning was used to observe the volume of cerebral infarction. After intervention, Morris water maze was used to observe the learning and memory ability of rats in each group; RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of mRNA of FNDC5 and its interacting proteins, and Western Blot was used to detect the expression of FNDC5/Irisin and its interacting proteins, inflammatory factors. Results: Exercise combined with electroacupuncture improved post-stroke cognitive deficits and reduced neurological deficits in MCAO rats. And the efficacy of the combined intervention was superior to signal exercise or electroacupuncture. Affinity Purification Mass Spectrometry screened and identified the interacting protein of hippocampal Irisin in MCAO rats as Vim. Exercise combined with electroacupuncture promoted the interaction between Irisin and Vim, reduced neuroinflammation and improved neurological damage and cognition. Conclusions: Exercise combined with electroacupuncture induces skeletal muscle to release Irisin into the hippocampus, interacts with Vim, attenuates neuroinflammation, and improves cognitive function in MCAO rats. Keywords: Irisin, Vim, MCAO, nueroinflammation, cognitive function
Zhuo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.