Therapeutic Effect Analysis of Tuina Manipulations in the Treatment of Insomnia and Itraq Quantitative Proteome Analysis

Introduction: Insomnia, one of the most common mental disorders, not only affects the quality of life, but also damages physical and mental health. Therefore, it is very necessary to explore the molecular mechanism of insomnia and find some suitable treatments. At present, methods of using drugs to treat insomnia are not satisfactory due to lack of evidences and side effects. Hence, development of non-drug treatments is particularly important. Tuina manipulations, a Chinese massage method, has achieved certain therapeutic effects on injuries, rheumatism, neurological diseases and other types of diseases. We have treated patient with insomnia by Tuina manipulations, and obtained therapeutic effects indeed. Methods: In the current study, assessments were performed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the insomnia severity index (ISI). iTRAQ (isobaric Tags for Relative and Absolute Quantitation) quantitative proteomics was used to analyze plasma samples taken from the Healthy Control (HC) group, insomnia patients group (before Tuina treatment, BTT) and insomnia-therapy group (after Tuina treatment, ATT) to identify the molecular correlation of insomnia. Results: The results showed that the PSQI score and ISI score of the ATT group were significantly lower than those of BTT, and the difference was statistically significant. In addition, the proteomics results show that in BTT vs. HC, the expression of many immune-related and stress-related proteins is out of control, the expression of many immune-related and stress-related proteins were out of control, and it revealed that Tuina manipulations had the capacities to regulate expression of immune-related and stress-related proteins in ATT vs. BTT, suggesting that Tuina manipulations may improve insomnia by regulating immune-related and stress-related proteins. The proteomics verification results had been verified by commercial ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Conclusion: All in all, our study not only found a good way to treat insomnia, but also provided a research foundation for improving insomnia.