Studying how and why auricular point acupressure works

Auricular point acupressure (APA) can relieve painful symptoms caused by chemotherapy, and Hongyu Wang, MD, PhD, will use a new pilot grant to study how and why it works at the genetic and molecular level.

Wang has received a $20,000 grant from the UTHealth Houston Cizik Nursing Research Institute for her project, “The Epigenetic Signatures of Auricular Point Acupressure Therapy Response in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy.” Wang is an associate professor in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston with an adjunct appointment at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston.

APA is a nonpharmacological pain management approach that involves stimulating standardized points on the ear associated with specific areas of the body. The late Chao Hsing Yeh, PhD, RN, a professor at Cizik School of Nursing, did pioneering work in the field. Wang helped continue Yeh’s work in studies led by Constance Johnson, PhD, MS, RN, FAAN, and Jennifer Kawi, PhD, MSN, FNP-BC, CNE, FAAN.

The team collected blood samples from cancer patients before and after APA administration for Yeh’s large study, “Auricular Point Acupressure to Manage Chemotherapy Induced Neuropathy (3R01CA245054),” which was funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

The samples are stored in the -80°C freezers within the CNRI’s Biobehavioral Health Biomarker Discovery Center. Housed at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, the lab is a designated as a UTHealth Houston research service center and provides a full range of services from specimen sample collection, preservation, and storage to assay development. It also holds a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Certificate of Waiver from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide a variety of tests for clinical purposes.

In her new project, Wang will analyze blood samples from 25 participants of Yeh’s study to detect how APA affects gene expression. Determining whether or to what degree APA may activate or suppress specific epigenetic characteristics can help scientists develop more targeted treatments for chemotherapy side effects, Wang explained.

“If we understand the mechanisms of how APA works, physicians will have better treatment options for patients,” she said.

The purpose of the CNRI pilot grants is to help researchers lay the groundwork for large NIH awards. Wang hopes future funding will enable her to analyze blood samples from many more of the participants in the earlier study.