Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine rapid progress in sequencing and computational methods, omics techniques have become powerful tools for researching biological mechanisms and diseases and for interdisciplinary applications, for example, biologics, mathematics, and infor- matics [32–34]. 3. Genomic Studies of Acupuncture in Diseases Many individual transcriptional proﬁles of animals or patients have been mined to search for target molecules of acupuncture treatments. Candidate genes or pathways asso- ciated with the protective eﬀect of acupuncture treatments have been revealed through genomic analysis for several diseases and symptoms. We list the acupoints and related symptoms in Table 1. 3.1. Analgesia. Acupuncture was reported to reduce pain during surgery in the 1950s [35] and can treat diﬀerent types of pain in many cases [36, 37]. Particularly, previous reports have indicated a major role for acupoint ST36, whose therapeutic properties include analgesia [38]. Gao et al. compared the hypothalamus transcriptional proﬁles of rats that responded or did not respond to EA analgesia treatment at ST36 [39]. They found that genes for glutamatergic receptors, ghrelin precursor peptides, the melanocortin 4 receptor, and neuroligin 1 may all be new targets for pain management. Moreover, Chae et al. found 375 genes showing signiﬁcant variation in response to the analgesic eﬀect of acupuncture (on LI4) [40]. Among these genes, cold shock domain protein A and kruppel-like factor 5 were identiﬁed as potential targets for investigating the mechanisms behind acupuncture-induced analgesia. 3.2. Antiaging. In an anti-aging study, Ding et al. analyzed the hippocampus gene expression proﬁles in senescence- accelerated mice given acupuncture treatment [41]. Fol- lowing applied acupuncture at the CV17, CV12, CV6, ST36, and SP10 acupoints, the researchers observed eight genes aﬀected by age. They found that acupuncture could completely or partially alter the gene expression of heat- shock proteins (Hsp84 and Hsp86) and Y-box binding pro- tein 1—genes related to oxidative damage—in senescence- accelerated mice, indicating that acupuncture may show promise in retarding aging in mammals. 3.3. Hypercholesterolemia. Li and Zhang stimulated C57BL/ 6j mice, which are used in diabetes and obesity research, at the ST40 acupoint and found that cholesterol 7α hydroxylase was upregulated following EA, while sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide was downregulated [42]. Each of these variations in gene expression might alter the balance of cholesterol metabolism and reduce cholesterol by regulating bile salt biosynthesis and ﬂux, respectively [43, 44]. 3.4. Knee Osteoarthritis. Tan et al. compared the transcrip- tional proﬁles of four patients stimulated at the CV4, CV6, ST36, EX32, and GB34 acupoints [45]. They collected sam- ples from the peripheral blood of patients after acupuncture Table 1: List of the acupuncture points (acupoints) reviewed in this paper. Acupoint Chinese name Acupoint name Function/target References Weizhong Tianzhu Guanyuan Qihai Zhongwan Danzhong Yintang Xiyan Fengchi Yanglingquan Xuanzhong Hegu Yingxiang Taichong Motor Area Neiguan Sanyinjiao Xuehai Futu Zusanli EX-HN3 BL40 BL10 CV4 CV6 CV12 CV17 EX32 GB20 GB34 GB39 LI4 LI20 LR3 MS6 PC6 SP6 SP10 ST32 ST36 Acute ischemic stroke Acute ischemic stroke Knee osteoarthritis Antiaging, knee osteoarthritis Antiaging Antiaging Allergic rhinitis Knee osteoarthritis Acute ischemic stroke Knee osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s disease Spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, Allergic rhinitis, analgesia, and acute ischemic stroke Allergic rhinitis Parkinson’s disease Acute ischemic stroke Acute ischemic stroke Spinal cord injury, acute ischemic stroke Anti-aging Spinal cord injury Neuropathic pain, spinal cord injury, immune modulation, allergic rhinitis, analgesia, anti-aging, knee osteoarthritis, and acute ischemic stroke 3 [41, 45] [11] [11] [45] [41] [41] [56] [45] [11] [45, 49– 52, 63, 64] [46, 64] [11, 40, 56] [46, 56] [49, 50] [11] [11] [11, 46] [41] [46] [9, 11, 38– 41, 45– 47, 53–56] Fenglong ST40 Hypercholesterolemia [42] treatments. Among diﬀerentially expressed genes involved in the pathways, oxidative phosphorylation (ATP synthesis) was found in all patients. Analysis of proﬁles with respect the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway database showed that the majority of diﬀeren- tially expressed genes were associated with seven types of metabolic pathways, particularly the primary, cellular, and energy metabolism pathways. These results showed that acupuncture treatment may regulate gene expression to balance energy metabolism of knee osteoarthritis patients. 3.5. Neuronal Diseases. In a spinal cord injury (SCI) study, EA treatment on rats at four acupoints—ST36, GB39, ST32,